One of Us
by potterfan36041
Summary: After years of investigation the government discovers the identities of the Power Rangers, however, they wish to put them to use. They wish for the rangers to be mentors. What happens when others try to become just one of the rangers? AU:Post DT
1. Report

MON, Montana

29 August 2010

Final Summary of Events from PANEL (Power rangers Against New Evil Legions)

PANEL representatives have concluded that there is no longer a risk to the world and on an even greater scale the universe from any new evil legions for the foreseeable future due to the action of PANEL Rangers. Their findings have been turned over to the United States Department of Defense, for further confirmation of the findings to be as stated. This message is to be destroyed upon reading.

Head PANEL Official-

Thomas J. Oliver

PANEL Officials-

Kimberly Hart-Oliver

Jason L. Scott

Trini Kwan-Scott

Rocky Desantos

Aisha Desantos

T.J. Johnson

Andros

PANEL Consultants-

Adam Park

Katherine Hilliard-Cranston

Billy Cranston

Tanya Sloan

Cassie Chan

Ashley Hammond

Justin Stewart

Carlos Vallertes

As well as several members from other various ranger teams, who wish to keep their names out of a memo that will surely not be destroyed, because of the idiotic government policies, which include a need of paper trail for everything that it works on, even if the matter is said to be top secret.

PANEL Chosen Power Rangers-

Madeline Andrews- Leader, White Ranger

Maddox Oliver-2nd in Command, Red Ranger (Of no relation to Thomas J. Oliver or Kimberly-Hart Oliver)

Garrett Rapier-Blue Ranger

Samuel Williams- Black Ranger

BethAnn Hollis-Pink Ranger

Indicates Military Services Members who have served as PANEL rangers, their records are to not show any affiliation with the PANEL according to Article 5.4B of the PANEL conception manual of guidelines, provided by the United States Armed Forces.

AN: I know this is a rather odd beginning, but think of this as an ending and the rest of the story is a flashback on what really happened. Please, just stick with it and read the next few chapters before you make any judgements on this story.


	2. Introduction to a New Life

The Power rangers Against New Evil Legions, henceforth known merely as PANEL, was formed by the United States government in the fall of 2005, after the last ranger team appeared on the North American continent as a means to gather knowledge of issues that might again make the need for rangers imminent. Officials dug through years of paperwork to confirm the identities the Power Ranger's and which rangers had the merit to be placed on the PANEL. Eight Power Rangers now sit on the PANEL with access to all rangers of the past without having to disclose their identities to the government unless they are listed as a PANEL consultant, which are only listed under the person's knowledge and agreement.

The PANEL's first mission was to determine exactly how much danger the Earth was in on a relative scale compared to the past from the evil beings that exist to try to take out our home. Very little had been done until this point to try to confirm or deny any new activity and the following two years were spent going through data and formulating a statistical layout for all senior government officials to review and come to their own basic conclusion as to what action should be taken. The PANEL was only to be used as an informational resource until a specific time when it would become necessary for there to be rangers again.

The senior government officials looked over the paperwork for over six months, most of which confused them to the point that they had to have a ranger there to interpret it all for them. After long consideration the plan to procure rangers was approved and thus the PANEL Power Rangers (known to the general public as the Elemental Force) was formed. This is their story.

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Spring 2008

_Undisclosed Location, California_

"Good morning, Dr. Oliver," Madeline Andrews said as she walked into his dojo for one of her weekly torture sessions. This was the one thing that saved her from having an emotional breakdown right now and she was grateful that she had been able to find this place. She had never thought that she would get back into martial arts after joining the military, but now it was the one thing that allowed her to have a normal day.

"Sgt. Andrews," Tommy said, curtly, as he continued talking to his wife. They both looked extremely tense, but that was not too out of the ordinary. They had looked like they were worried about things for months now and she was sure that that was not healthy for Kim right now.

"They want Power Rangers by the end of the week Tommy," Kim said as Tommy merely nodded. He knew that all too well, but he didn't want to have to talk to them about it. He didn't see why it was even necessary to get a ranger team when the Earth had not been attacked yet. Sure they knew that it was imminent, but the rangers didn't do it like this, they waited until they were attacked and then they went out and got rangers. The people that they were working for now were messing up their entire system of being rangers.

"Sgt. Andrews is the first on my list, Kim, along with two other military members that Jason and Rocky are obtaining as we speak. The other two are civilian, so we'll have to hope that the others can convince them, although they both seemed to like the idea," Tommy said as Madeline walked back into the room and Kim raised her eyebrows at him wondering when he was going to get a move on about all of this. They didn't exactly have a whole lot of time left to waste, considering what would happen to them if they did not meet the expectations that they were being placed on them. "Don't look at me like that."

"Yeah, do what you have to do and you won't have to worry about my looks anymore," Kim said as Tommy just shook his head and walked towards Madeline with a communicator in one hand and a power coin in the other. He could only pray that she would not chunk them back at her when she saw what it was and he told her exactly what was going on.

"Hey, Tommy," Madeline said as she continued to stretch and he tossed the two items to her. "Nice, a watch and a ratty old coin, who are they for?"

"You," Tommy said as Madeline looked over at Kim hoping the older woman would deny it. She would be thankful if it would be denied. Things definitely did not seem like they were going to go well at all.

"What is it?" Madeline asked, picking the coin up and it glowed white as Tommy and Kim smiled. They both knew that this was exactly what would happen when the right person took the coin and they had only hoped that they had picked the right person for each coin. "Um…what's going on here?"

"You've been chosen by the PANEL to become a Power Ranger, the government already knows and agrees to your appointment, so it will not interfere with your service. We want you to be the leader," Tommy said as Madeline dropped both items and Tommy smiled. He had expected this much from her, at the very least, when he dropped that particular bombshell on her.

"Panel?" How long have I been pegged for this?" Madeline asked looking Tommy directly in the eyes. She wanted to see if he was lying. She knew that his eyes would give him away, or so Kim said.

"The moment you walked in and showed potential. I know being a ranger probably is not very high on your list, but we were given the ability to search through all the branches of the military and you and two others were selected, as well as two civilians," Tommy said as Madeline just shook her head. This was absolutely crazy. There was no such thing as Power Rangers. She knew enough about the system to know that much to be true. They had to just be a myth that was kept alive for children and Tommy just had to be pulling her leg about being a ranger. "By the way, you control the power and how much you use and how it comes out of you. You are the human element."

"Can I just think about this at work?" Madeline asked as she stood up and looked between Kim and Tommy. She suddenly did not need to do any sort of karate. She needed to go for a long walk, away from here, and think all of this crap out.

"You can think, but you've been chosen, there is not much you can do about it right now," Tommy said as Madeline slipped the communicator on and slipped the coin in her pocket.

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"That first day was rough," Madeline remarked to the government official that came to interview her, as well as her colleagues. They did not know much about why they were being interviewed, although they had put more together over the last few days that they had been together, isolated from the rest of the world and especially from contacting their mentors. They could figure that it had to have something to do with them, but they couldn't see how that could be the truth, considering everything that their mentors had done for them, but that was just in their opinion. Very few people were able to see exactly what the mentors did and although there had been times that they had questioned their actions, they knew that they had done the best that they could, otherwise they would not be sitting there today.

"The first week is more like it," Maddox said as Madeline nodded. The two of them wound up out ranking a Lieutenant as rangers, but they still had to answer to him in their regular job. It was definitely something that took some getting used to and some very tense conversations with supervision so that they did not kill each other.

"There were some interesting concepts that we had to learn to live with," Sam said as they looked over at him. They both had to keep their mouths shut or they were going to say something that would surely get them kicked out of the building before they even truly got started. "Thank goodness our days as rangers are over."

"Don't the three of you get started," BethAnn said as the interviewer looked over at her, surprised by her heavy Australian accent. He had assumed that all of the rangers were American, but he was obviously wrong in that assumption as she was the first to speak with a foreign accent and he was still not sure if she was the only one. "We're here to go over the experience, not fight about who was in charge and why some of us think that they would have been better in those particular positions."

"Well, I guess we need to go to the first fight at the base then," Madeline said as Maddox and Sam nodded in agreement. Their introduction to the ranger world was something that they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

-----------

Madeline drove through the base on her way to class. She had never imagined the welcome she had gotten at the dojo this morning from Tommy. She wondered who the others might be, why she was chosen and so many other things that she was sure that she would never get an answer for. She, however, did not have the time to luxuriously think about all of the possibilities and try to narrow it down. She knew that as soon as she rounded the corner and entered the lower part of the base.

"Crap," Madeline said as she reached over for her hat and top, but she was pulled out of her car by Maddox before she was able to throw either on.

"Nice, isn't it? Do you have any idea how much trouble we are in here?" Maddox asked as Madeline looked over at him startled that he was talking to her like he knew exactly what was going on. "They said that you would be here, I just had to find you."

"What's going on, why are you…" Madeline began to ask as he looked over at her, which made her realize what he must be. She had never thought that he would be pulled into this as well. He had always been in good shape, but he had never been the aggressive type, now he was a ranger and had to fight whatever the hell these things were that were attacking them.

"Yeah, I'm the fire element, so wind and water must be around here somewhere," Maddox said, sarcastically, as the two of them began to fight as several of the other people ran for their cars or at least the gates where it seemed that the creature was not even attempting to attack. They wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and honestly the rangers did not blame them.

"Don't joke like that," Madeline said as Maddox looked over at her.

"Who said I was joking?" Maddox asked as the two of them continued to do heavy damage, along with one other man. He looked vaguely familiar, but they were not paying too much attention to him, considering what they were facing. "What do you guess he is?"

"Darkness," Madeline said after a moment of thought and then went back to her work. However, they were being overwhelmed and she felt something building inside of her and finally out of frustration threw her arms out to release the energy and watched as every being that was not a Power Ranger fell to the ground.

"What the hell was that?" Lt. Samuel Williams yelled as he approached the others who looked over at him, bewildered, as they now realized exactly who he was and wondered why in the world he was picked to be a Power Ranger. "Statute of Secrecy! Don't you know a damn thing!"

"No sir, we don't. I guess you were given the manual this morning and managed to read it before you came in to work today," Madeline said as Tommy landed next to her and looked around at them. He had not expected to have to take on a fight so soon.

"Don't ever call him sir again," Tommy said as Madeline just looked at him. She had never thought that she would hear those words, but now she had and she wondered how long it would be before Lt. Williams exploded. "You are in charge here, so get used to it. This is not the military, although I don't know what Jason told you to get you to take that."

"Funny, I'm sure that the government would not agree to a finely trained officer such as myself…" Sam began as Tommy glared over at him and he promptly clamped his mouth shut. He only thought that Jason was tough, but this man struck fear into his heart unlike no other. He could almost feel the energy it was taking for him to hold himself back and that was something that took years to perfect before anyone else would feel it. He knew, he had tried to become that way and no one really was concerned when he said or did something ridiculous.

"You can't bull shit your way out of things with me like you have with so many others," Tommy said as he looked him straight in the eyes. "I've see you at times that they haven't and I'm not impressed. This is my job to choose and they thought you would be wonderful and told me you had to come, so I had to take you. So trust me, you've got to prove yourself before we'll even let you in the field."

"I like this guy," Maddox said as Madeline smiled over at him. This was why Rocky fought so hard for him. He could see things that the others couldn't and he was likely to just smile and shake his head if something was wrong. They needed that balance as Madeline and Sam were likely to be at each other's throats for the next several weeks until things had gotten settled down some.

"We need to get going," Tommy said again as he pulled up his sleeve. "Just hold the buttons and you'll get there."

"I'll prove myself," Sam said as Madeline and Maddox left. They were going to have a lot of fun watching all of this.


	3. Gathering of Others

"So where are the other two?" Madeline asked as Tommy looked over at her. This was the first mission that they had for them and he hoped that they would accept it without too many questions.

"They are in Australia and England. We need for you two to go get them," Tommy said as Madeline and Maddox looked at each other. They did not really like the idea, but they knew it should be possible, considering who they were getting their orders from. They didn't know any of his history, but he seemed more than competent and not only that, he seemed to understand what was going on here better than anyone else that they had met so far. "First things first, let's get you out of those and into something less conspicuous."

"Tommy am I going to have to bring him here myself?" Kim asked as she walked over to him. Maddox had never seen her before and he didn't imagine how a pregnant Power Ranger was going to be much help, but he knew better than to say anything about the fact that she was pregnant and working on this project. He knew that he was very likely to be slapped by the pregnant woman and he did not wish to experience that.

"Hold your horses, missy," Tommy said as Kim tapped her foot on the floor and Tommy quickly went and brought the lieutenant back. He did not want to risk pissing his wife off this early during the day when she had not exactly slept that well the night before. "You happy?"

"Yes," Kim said as Sam walked over to her and just shook his head. This was exactly what he had envisioned happening to a female ranger once she was past her prime and no longer of any use to the team. Get knocked up by one of the male rangers that refused to marry her and have babies. What more could a woman want in this world?

"You are a Power Ranger?" Sam asked and Tommy quickly grabbed Kim's arm and pulled her back. She did not need to get mad right now. He did not want to have to deal with her having the baby prematurely.

"Arrogant asshole," Kim said as Jason and Rocky teleported in and looked over at Kim with smiles on their faces. They had known that she was going to have this reaction to the man and they had all been waiting for it. Kim was the one that was likely to make the biggest impression on the man and they were very happy for that. She would definitely point some things out that he wouldn't like, if Tommy would let her, but they weren't sure that Tommy would not send her home. They all knew that she did not want for her to experience any more stress than they could help.

"Glad she agrees," Rocky said as Jason and Tommy smiled, they had all been reluctant to let him on, but there was nothing that they could do about it. They had been backed into a corner that they had not been able to get themselves out of, although they had put up a hell of a fight for the fifth ranger to be someone else. "I think that if we ever have to do that again we get all the choices. I'm not going to put up with something like this again."

"I know," Tommy said as Kim stalked over and grabbed the first weapon that was available for her use. "No, mommy, don't even think about it."

"Don't you no mommy me, Tommy, this man needs to be shown," Kim said as Tommy grabbed the sword from her and tossed it aside. She was right, but she did not need to be the one to do it. "Tommy."

"I'll handle it," Tommy said as he placed his hands on her shoulders and made her look him in the eye, he didn't want for her to do anything crazy and she understood that from the look in his eyes. Madeline and Maddox walked back in and saw Sam square off towards Tommy and their eyes widened. Madeline's from her experience with Tommy and Maddox from just looking at the situation in front of him. He knew that Sam took some martial arts, but he was afraid that the man in front of him was just a tad bit more experienced than Sam was expecting.

"You want to split up?" Madeline asked as she looked over at Tommy and Sam. She wanted to see what was happening here much more than she wanted to go hopping around the world looking for rangers.

"I think the idea is for us to work together, you know that we might need to start that now," Maddox said as Madeline looked at him in disgust. Was he not interested in seeing the demise of their least favorite Lieutenant?

"I want to catch some of the show," Madeline whispered as Jason and Kim laughed. They didn't blame her after everything they had seen. Their surveillance systems were much better than the government could ever imagine getting their hands on and they had seen things that made them wonder why the government was so insistent on this man.

"If you hurry, you'll have plenty of time," Tommy said as Madeline grabbed Maddox and they quickly teleported away.

"It should only take ten minutes for me to take you down," Sam said as Jason pushed Kim back down on her stool and Tommy pulled off his shirt and tossed Sam a pole from the wall. He knew that the man was going to need that at the very least once he got started.

"You're going to need that," Tommy said as Jason and Rocky just shook their heads. They were both going to enjoy watching this but they also knew that Sam had no idea who he was facing.

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"Wow," Madeline said as they landed in a penthouse apartment and Maddox looked around. It seemed absolutely deserted, so why would they come here to look for someone? It made no sense that a selected ranger would live in a place like this. "Um…why didn't they pick this place as a headquarters? We could just crash for a little while and no one would ever know."

"You already did and someone does know," Garrett Rapier said as they wheeled around to locate the body that went along with the sound of the voice. "You are the representatives from some American panel, correct? My letter said that you would be arriving here anytime now to collect me, although this is not exactly what I pictured when they said that you would 'drop in'."

"PANEL my ass," Madeline said as she tossed him a communicator and a coin.

"I'm sorry but I refuse to be pink. It kinda messes with my whole complexion," Garrett said as Madeline looked over at him and then took it back. "Much better, I am a man you know."

"And I'm sorry I didn't notice. I didn't really know that they had a specific color with them. But they sent you a letter?" Madeline asked as Garrett nodded. Why hadn't she gotten a nice little letter? Why had she had to meet Tommy one morning and just be told that she was going to become a ranger?

"I had to get some things in order and this was my way to do it, I'm sure that BethAnn had to do the same thing, since she's from outside of the United States," Garrett said as Madeline looked down at the piece of paper Tommy had handed her. It didn't help explain anything except to make sure she gave the male the blue and the woman the pink, but she had already messed that up.

"I love how they know more than us and we were picked up by the actual PANEL members, not by fellow rangers who don't know jack shit," Madeline said as Garrett hitched his bag onto his shoulders and smiled. He could tell that he was going to like the two of them, even if he didn't like anyone else that he had to deal with in this crazy new turn in his life.

"Well, I guess I'll learn to love all of America's ways. Too bad I'm leaving this place, it's been in the family for generations," Garrett said as Madeline nodded. She couldn't help but agree with him that it was a pity that he had to leave a place like this. "Who knows, maybe this will be better."

"An optimistic Brit," Maddox said as Madeline looked over at him. They didn't need to make him mad in only a few seconds.

"Most of us are optimistic. Mind you we have a few nutters that seem to rule your television stations, just like you have those skinny bitches that are all on the news," Garrett said as he looked at them. The fact that they were not objecting to it made him sure that they actually agreed with what he was saying. "Don't we need to get going if we are going to pick up BethAnn before all hell breaks loose back in the states?"

"I think we're missing that as we speak," Madeline said in a disappointed tone.

"Why are you so disappointed?" Garrett asked as they teleported to Australia and landed on the beach. They were certain that this was not a very good place to land, but it was obviously where Tommy had planned to do everything. "I'd be glad to miss hell breaking loose upon the world, thank you very much."

"It's not the world that hell is breaking loose upon, it's the man that has been the thorn in our side is getting his ass whooped and we cannot see it," Maddox said as BethAnn walked over and just shook her head. This was definitely a tad bit different than anything she had thought would ever happen to her.

"You're late," BethAnn said as they looked over at her and she smiled. "But I do expect the time change had something to do with it."

"BethAnn, nice to meet you, these lovely people are our American escorts," Garrett said as BethAnn gave him a shocked look. She had thought that she would be working with more Australians, not Americans and by the sound of it a Brit.

"Weren't there Australian Power Rangers? I thought that that was who I was…whoa, um, we might, I guess…well I suppose I can transfer to their school system, considering…" BethAnn said as Maddox nodded that that would work.

"Come on, put this thing on so we can go watch," Maddox said, eagerly, as BethAnn reluctantly put it on and he pressed the buttons for her.

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"Tommy, don't be so cruel," Kim said with a laugh as Sam stood up and looked at the man. He had had absolutely no idea that Tommy was this talented and he got the distinct feeling that Tommy was not unleashing his full fury right now, he still had more cooped up inside of himself.

"I'm not really being cruel, I'm just being…" Tommy paused as he looked over to see the other for Power Rangers had arrived. He didn't think it wise to finish that particular thought anymore. "I thought you'd be gone much longer."

"We want to see the show," Madeline said as Sam grabbed her by her hair and held her in front of him, knowing that Tommy would not do a single thing to her.

"He won't attack you," Sam whispered in her ear as Tommy looked at the two of them and nodded at Madeline and she simply elbowed him in the gut.

"You forgot something very important, this is no longer considered assaulting an officer while I'm here. You'll be training with me and you might as well get used to it," Madeline said looking him straight in the eyes. "It's time you get what is coming to you, you bastard."

"I can have you court marshaled for everything," Sam said slamming her to the floor and quickly knew that he had done something wrong, as Tommy pegged him to the far wall and Maddox walked over and squatted down next to Madeline and he could feel the rage coming off of her.

"You now abide by our laws, not by the laws of the United States Armed Services. She is your leader and I will beat your ass until that registers and if it never does, you will be gone before you can say Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. We already have someone waiting in the wings to replace you, because we didn't want you, no matter how great your superiors think you are," Tommy said as he looked back at Maddox and Madeline. He could see what Madeline wanted to do in her eyes, but he knew that she didn't need to be the one to do this. He needed to hate the PANEL if he was going to hate anyone, because he was going to have to work with Madeline.

"Yeah, you are a wonderful person to preach to me about my qualifications as a fighter. I've been to Iraq, I've fought everything that they have thrown at me and I'm still here," Sam said as Tommy slowly released him and looked at the man.

"I give you that, I agree that you would be far better than me to lead people into Iraq, but you are not respected by the people that you work with. That is something that I actually value, that's why she was picked over you. That is why we were so hesitant to bring you in, because you are an arrogant asshole who thinks that the sun shines for him every day. I've been in battles where I have almost seen the ones that I love die, I've seen civilians die because I wasn't able to get there in time and I've seen people become evil before my eyes. I have to live with the memories that I almost killed her and that I was the one that put her through a living hell," Tommy said pointing towards Kimberly, who was now giving Jason and Rocky nervous glances. She knew that Tommy was furious to be admitting all of this to him and she did not want to have to talk him down or more accurately pull him off of Sam when he made another smart remark.

"I've watched my friends die," Sam said as Tommy looked at him.

"But where you ever the one that killed them?" Tommy asked as Sam shook his head no. "Then you see that you have something to learn, I was the one that almost killed her and she has almost killed me a couple of times too. We don't remember half of the things that we do when we're evil, but when we come back to ourselves it hits us. You want to know what it's like to see your wife lying on a hospital bed and you know that you were the one that put her there and you can't do a damn thing to change it?"

"I'm not married," Sam said as Tommy looked at him. There had to be some way to reach this man because that speech and seemed to reach everyone else in the room but him.

"And the reason that you're not is because you're so sure of yourself, so sure that everything you do is right and you don't know how to compromise with any woman without making her feel like shit for making you see her point. How many girlfriends have you had?" Kim asked as Sam looked over at her and started towards her, but Tommy grabbed him. If he so much as touched her, he would not wake up the next day or for the next week for that matter.

"I promise you if you touch her, you will not wake up tomorrow," Tommy said as Sam looked back at him. He was not scared of him.

"Sure," Sam said Jason grabbed Tommy and took the brunt of the force that had been intended for Sam as the man stalked towards Kimberly.

"Answer my question," Kim said as she looked up at the man and he laughed in her face, before she kneed him. "Answer my question, I may be pregnant, but I won't take any crap from you or anyone else."

"Four," Sam said as Kim walked over to Tommy and placed her hands on his shoulders. She knew that she needed to calm him down before he got far too worked up over it all. "You are a bitch though."

"Have fun," Kim said stepping out of the way and Jason released Tommy as well. He had just crossed an invisible line and they could see that none of the older rangers were going to try to hold Tommy back.

"You are going to show her some respect, because she is actually the person that is in charge of helping you," Tommy said as he stalked towards him and Sam automatically looked for someone to throw in front of him, so that he didn't have to deal with this man, but Madeline was standing far away and the other girl was glaring at him, while Kim was pacing from her own frustrations. "No help for you now."

"What do you want me to do? Say that I will change my ways? My ways work, it gets things done and that is what my superiors want," Sam said as Tommy just shook his head in disgust.

"Let me tell you that it won't work here, you are the lowest man on the totem pole. You have to earn their respect before I'll give you more responsibilities," Tommy said as Sam looked towards Jason.

"You won't find any help with me. I was the only one that thought you might be able to help us out, but you are proving me wrong with every word you say," Jason said as Tommy looked at him.

"You can walk out now if you want, I'll let you, because I won't put my team through this hell. I'll explain to the government why you won't work out and I'll take whatever I have to take to get them to understand it all, but you won't treat them like this. They don't deserve it. They've done too much to have all of it destroyed by an arrogant asshole," Tommy said as Sam stared at him. He was not going to walk out, they needed him, that much was obvious from everything that they had had to deal with this morning.

"I'm going to stay," Sam said as Tommy gave him a questioning look.

"Then guess what, you have a long night ahead of you," Tommy said as he shoved him into a room and looked back at the others as Kim was giving him a concerned look. "Don't worry, I won't kill him and Kim, I'll be home by midnight, I promise."

"All right, Tommy," Kim said as she watched him close the door and she looked at the others, who were giving her their own concerned looks. They knew that this was not going to be pretty and they wanted to be told to just get the hell out before all hell broke loose. "Go home and everything will be fine with you. We'll call you tomorrow and don't teleport in front of people if you can help it."

"Don't worry, we'll be good little children," Madeline said as Kim just nodded and watched them leave, before she looked over at Jason and Rocky, who were studying her tired form.

"Are you okay?" Rocky asked as Kim sat down in a chair and covered her face. She was so tired and so upset and she didn't want to have to deal with any of this right now, but she didn't really have a choice. She knew that Tommy had to get all of this straightened out tonight. They had so much that they had to do starting tomorrow and if they didn't get him in workable condition, then things were going to be rough. "Kim?"

"I'll be okay, I just hate knowing that he's going to come in tonight so riled up and I'll have to talk him down, before we can even get to sleep," Kim said as Rocky and Jason heard a thump as Kim looked over at the door and let out a long sigh. "I'll be fine guys, I promise. I'll take care of all of it."

"Kim, you shouldn't have to, you've had enough stress on you for the last few months. Go home, take a bath and we'll talk Tommy down before he comes home to you," Jason said as Kim looked over at him, thankful, but not sure if she could really leave. She trusted Jason and Rocky, but she didn't know if they would do a very good job calming Tommy down. They had actually been known to amp him up some times and that was definitely not was she needed to happen tonight. "Kim, he wants you to go home and get some rest. Everything will be fine, I promise you.""Okay," Kim said as she yawned and then headed towards the doors, which slid open to let her out.

"Are you sure about that?" Rocky asked as Jason shook his head no. He had to admit that he didn't think that things were going to go good right now, but he knew that Tommy meant for Kim to go home.

She was the one person that they needed to stay as calm as possible, for Tommy because everything was riding on the decisions that he had made. If something didn't work out, he would have to live with it and Kim didn't need the stress, they all knew that. They knew that they were going to have to eventually make a team and it was something that was a worry from the beginning.

They didn't know when it was going to be, but when they had gotten the call ten months ago, they had been sure that everything would be fine, then Kim found out she was pregnant four months into the search. That had changed everything for them, especially for Tommy. He had to take on a lot more in order to protect her and now he was taking on the one obstacle that they had. Convincing the black ranger that he was going to have to change, because if he didn't then he would have to leave, there was nothing that they could do about it.


	4. One Conversation

"You don't scare me," Sam said as Tommy just shook his head. He had been afraid that the man across from him would not understand what they were going through at all and he was right about that. Sam didn't have a damn clue about how important it was for him to just understand what they were trying to do here. Then they would work on adjusting his attitude towards the others.

"My point isn't to scare you, it's to teach you that there are other ways to lead. That you don't have to be an arrogant asshole and that you'll learn not to call women bitches, just because they make you see something that you don't like," Tommy said as he sat down against the door and looked at the man. He didn't have the energy to physically fight, so he was just going to have to outsmart him, which he was sure that he could do. "I'm not going to fight you, I don't think that the government would be happy if you came into work tomorrow black and blue."

"I will be going to sick call if you keep me here until midnight, that is absolutely ridiculous," Sam said as Tommy laughed. He would love to hear the sickness that the man would come up with and he was pretty sure that it would not be anything that would honestly concern him.

"Nice, I won't get to sleep until about two o'clock because my wife is going to be upset by the time everything sinks in and I really want to thank you for calling her a bitch since I'm sure she hasn't really processed that yet and when she does, I wouldn't be surprised if she barges in here and gives you a piece of her mind," Tommy said as Sam looked over at him. He could see that he was more mad about what he had said to his wife than anything that he had said to him. It seemed that he could take personal insults pretty well, but he could not take it when he crossed the line and went after his wife.

"I didn't realize you were married to the woman, you didn't seem like the marrying type, but I guess I was just wrong about you," Sam said as Tommy looked over at him and just shook his head. That was the biggest bunch of bull shit that he had ever heard and he wanted to tell him that but he just couldn't bring himself to it. He wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible after he made his point.

"I said that I saw my wife on a hospital bed because I put her there, who did you think I was talking about?" Tommy asked as Sam looked over at him. He hadn't thought that he had been serious. He thought that she was just another woman who didn't know the father of her child.

"Not her," Sam said as Tommy just shook his head. "Why is it so important that I change?"

"Because they will be fighting beside you and if you don't want to be hung out to dry, you have to be able to be friends with them and you don't have that many friends right now. We don't trust you farther than we can throw you and for some of us that is a decent distance," Tommy said as he looked him in the eyes and Sam gave him a scared look. It almost seemed to him like Tommy was tempted to make his point by actually throwing him. "You have to admit it all, you have to learn to think that you can be human and make mistakes. That's why we couldn't make you the human element, that's why you had to be the element of darkness. We saw what none of your superiors wanted to see, but we had to see it because of our job, the job that we now have to entrust you with. You are now a ranger, which is going to try you just as much as being an officer, if not more because of some of the choices that you will have to make."

"But I've always been in charge," Sam said as Tommy looked over at him. He knew what it was like to always lead, but he knew that it was time to teach the man to follow. It was a lesson that he had learned the hard way and he didn't want for it to be the same for Sam or anyone else if he could help it.

"You may not like Madeline, but I know what she is capable of, we all do. You've seen her in action and you've seen how well she works with Maddox, despite the fact that they don't seem like a likely pair," Tommy said as Sam barely nodded. "They care about each other, we need to see that you care about something, even if it is only your pride."

"My pride?" Sam asked as Tommy looked over at him.

"Well, if you just wanted to protect your image with your colleagues, we could deal with that, but you are actually an arrogant asshole and you just want to do this for the hell of it," Tommy said as he looked him dead in the eyes. He could see that it was the first time that anyone had told Sam this and he hoped that he took it seriously, otherwise they wouldn't be able to work with him. Their rangers just couldn't take this sort of thing. They had enough conflict without them having any problems within the ranger team itself. "I need you to listen to me and try to understand this…if you can't admit that you need to work on you, we can't work with you."

"What was she trying to point out?" Sam asked as Tommy looked over at him. He knew that he had to be wondering what Kimberly's point was about all of it. He knew exactly what it was, but he didn't know if he would be able to explain it to him or whether or not it would be better to not even try it right now.

"I've only ever dated one other person besides her, she had two other boyfriends besides me, but we both ended it with them. We knew that something was not right, but I can almost bet that every girl broke up with you," Tommy said as Sam barely nodded his head yes. "Is it them or is it you?"

"I guess it could be me, but all of them are still my friends," Sam said as Tommy nodded.

"They aren't that close to you though and I can still look at my ex-girlfriend and smile. We are actually friends, you can't really call them friends," Tommy said as Sam sat down across the room from him. He could definitely see the point there, but it was a harsh reality to face, considering everything that he had been through. "It's about being a better person it is not about how well you fight or lead."

"So you're telling me I'm a horrible person?" Sam asked, as Tommy barely nodded his head.

"You just have to learn, you have to understand, we are a team and the team doesn't work the way that you are used to it working. You order one of the older rangers around and they will laugh in your face at the very least. Believe me, we know what we're doing and just because we don't have medals for everything that we did, doesn't mean that we haven't pulled off some things that no one ever expected us to do," Tommy said as Sam looked over at him. If he only knew about the missions that they had been on that had almost taken their lives, then he would certainly appreciate and respect them just a bit more but Tommy didn't want to throw any of that out there for him to think about unless he absolutely had to. "When do you think that the government figured out who we are?"

"They've known who you were since the beginning," Sam said as Tommy shook his head no. That idea could not be further from the truth. The government had had to do so much research to find them, although they were helped by the fact that Billy conveniently would lose anything with the word Power Ranger on it that came across his desk.

"No, Billy did a good job keeping everything about us from being discussed. He was the head of the committee to discover us and was able to throw them off track for a long time, until they began suspecting him and had another person investigate. I think it took them more than a decade to confirm just him, after they backed him into a corner and explained the situation, he suggested the rest of us. He didn't want to be a member of the PANEL, but he has helped us more than you would ever believe," Tommy said as Sam just shook his head. He could not believe that they had been unable to find them.

"There is no way that it took them a decade," Sam said as Tommy just shook his head.

"It took them a decade because we didn't want to be discovered. There is a difference in the way that we protect the country and the way that you do and it begins at the most elemental level. We protect the country, because we were chosen and because we knew what would happen if we didn't. You volunteered, which is more than the rest of us can say, but you have a system that has been built in stone for years and sometimes an old system needs a change. We're here to bring about a change; it's all that we can do. This is not a military mission, by any means. We have found an evil that is ready to attack the earth any time now. The government was afraid the day would come when there wouldn't be any rangers. That is why they found us. That's why we were needed and why we are here. I think that you might find that we do have some sort of mangled system, but you need to understand there is no protocol for how we fight a battle, we do what has to be done to win, because losing means that people die. Can you accept that?" Tommy asked as Sam looked over and then nodded that he could. A lot of this was actually making sense and that worried him, he thought that becoming a ranger was odd and career suicide, but the more that he found out, the better it sounded.

"I understand that things are going to be different, but is there any way that I will lead?" Sam asked as Tommy shook his head no.

"You may be more trusted by Madeline and the more she trusts you, the more likely it is that she will come to you for some help. There is a reason that she is the human element, she can forgive and that is something that we know you have a very hard time doing. She is going to need everyone to be on board and ready to do whatever is asked, because the strategies that you would employ, won't work here. You can't get a tank and blow the things head off, although we'd have loved that sometimes, you have to fight and the strategy gets tricky. We all trust her, you just have to," Tommy said pointedly, as Sam barely nodded and the headed towards the door. "You think that we are done?"

"I think I need to go home and think," Sam said as Tommy stood up and allowed him to exit the room, he certainly didn't blame the man for that. It was a lot to take in a couple of hours and he was dealing with it slightly better than they expected.

--------------

"Hey," Kim whispered as she rolled over to look up at Tommy and he crawled into bed next to her. "You're back early."

"He actually listened," Tommy said as she settled her head on his shoulder and he smiled down at her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I knew that he would probably call me a bitch. I just didn't think he would be stupid enough to do it with you around after that speech," Kim murmured as she drifted back off to sleep and Tommy gently pulled the covers up over the both of them. Coming home to this was something that he had always loved, even when it seemed like it would never happen. He knew that they could pull this off, as long as they were together and no one was stupid enough to cross their path.


	5. Pushing Up Daisies

"That was the first day," Madeline said as the official just shook his head. He could not believe what he was hearing, that these rangers had treated them like they were dirt. That they had told them to disobey direct government laws; it made absolutely no sense to him how they had even made it out of there alive. "They were all awesome."

"Awesome? They tell a superior officer that he has to take orders from a Sergeant and that is awesome?" Fred Sanderson said as they looked over at him. They were sure that Madeline was the best one to answer that particular question. She had had to answer it before to some higher government officials and this man was nothing compared to them.

"There is something you need to understand about the rangers, they were not the military, even if the government hired them and told them that they had to work with military personnel they still did not have to obey the military system of order. They made sure of that before they even really looked for military members to be a part of the team. They had a system that they had perfected on their own, without any of our help and we benefitted from the fact that they knew what they were doing. We didn't have a clue, but they could prepare us in ways that we never expected. I don't think we ever met anything that we weren't prepared for, on some level. Tell me, do you think their way is so horrible now?" Madeline asked as Fred barely shook his head and then looked down at the tape recorder. He knew that he was going to run out of tapes long before they stopped talking and he knew that his superiors would not accept that, so he was going to have to find some way to get some more, quickly. There was only a once in a life time chance to get all of this information out of the rangers.

-----------------

"Was that real?" Madeline asked as she walked up next to Maddox the next day and he looked over at her with a smile on his face. He had definitely thought it was a dream last night when all of it occurred, but now that it had sunk in, he knew that it was the truth, that they had become rangers, whether they liked it or not they were going to have to learn to live with it. It was a new reality that they had never thought would come true.

"If it wasn't real, then we both had one hell of a hallucination yesterday," Maddox said as Madeline laughed. At least he was taking it about the same as she was and that was some comfort. The lieutenant on the other hand, might not be so nice about all of this. It had to be a blow to be told that a sergeant would be telling him what to do.

"Sergeants," Lt. Williams said as he strode up to the two of them and they saluted as he stopped in front of them.

"You look like you weren't hurt too bad," Madeline said as Sam just shook his head. Tommy had given him a lot to think about and that was even worse than having to deal with injuries. He had never thought that the man would be right on so many things that would make it hard for him to sleep.

"More my ego than anything else," Sam said as Madeline smiled and Maddox just looked over at him. He could not believe that Tommy had let him off that easy. He had seen more of the man than Madeline and knew enough about him to say that Sam was not telling the complete truth. "He made me see some things I didn't want to."

"At least it wasn't too late for you to come around," Madeline said as Sam just shook his head. He didn't know how she could be this forgiving; he certainly was not this way about almost anything.

"I think Tommy would have beaten my ass for that one. By the way how do you know him?" Sam asked as Madeline looked between the two of them and saw they were anxious to find out the answer. It was obvious to all of them that he was the head of this PANEL and they wanted to know what they were dealing with.

"I walked into his dojo one day after class and asked if he had room for a beginner student. After that day, I've been going there three times a week in the mornings to get some of the stress out of my system. He's been the person to keep me from losing my mind and I'm sure his wife appreciates me being there so much," Madeline said with a smile as some of their classmates walked past them, they could not believe the three of them were together without killing each other.

"That's nice. How many did you meet before they talked to you yesterday?" Sam asked as they began walking down the hill.

"More than you've met so far. I think that they wanted to run me by everyone, considering what they want me to do," Madeline said as the others nodded. Both of them had only caught a glimpse of Tommy before as he stood on the sidelines and watched them spar. They had thought that he was just a scout for some of the other students. Little did they know what he was and what he would mean to them one day.

"Yeah, but what are they like?" Maddox asked as Madeline just shook her head. He had nothing to worry about, he was going to be well liked. Sam, on the other hand, had already had a very rocky start with them.

"Don't worry, they are all nice people," Madeline said as they nodded.

"When will we be meeting again?" Sam asked as Madeline shrugged her shoulders. They hadn't been told anything last night, considering everything else that had happened.

"Hello, I'm surprised to see the three of you here," Mrs. Dumas said as they looked at her. "We received this memo stating that all of you would be taken out of class immediately and will then be placed back in at an unspecified time."

"Where are we to report then?" Maddox asked as Mrs. Dumas shrugged her shoulders and handed over the piece of paper and the three of them huddled around it. "Tommy?"

"He's the only person that could manage something like this," Madeline said as she read it, scanning for some sort of clue. He had to leave something there for them. "I have a hunch, let's go."

"Where are we going?" Maddox asked as she walked over to her car and he also jumped in. He had walked to work this morning and he was sure that wherever they were going would require a tiny drive.

"Get your car and follow me. You can't exactly ride with us," Madeline said as Sam barely nodded. He knew better than to second guess her right now.

------------

"Where are we?" Sam asked as Madeline pulled up to her own house.

"Not important, let's teleport when we get behind the house," Madeline said as Maddox and Sam nodded and in a few seconds they were flying through the air.

"You know, I expected this to take a lot less time," Tommy said with a smile as they landed in front of him. He had been there for about an hour and was getting very close to giving up on them showing up. "Of course you have to be tired and you're units seem to have taken a very long time passing this down. You were supposed to be kicked out on your asses yesterday."

"How's your wife?" Madeline asked as she could see the bags under his eyes. She knew the signs of him being thoroughly exhausted and this was the worst that she had seen him in months, since the beginning of her pregnancy from what she could remember.

"She woke up at three o'clock throwing up and I finally got her back to sleep a couple of hours ago," Tommy said as he looked at them. "Sit we need to talk. All of you are now being paid to do this. To the outside world you will still go to work every day, workout, buy groceries, but you will come here every day. This is now your job."

"How old are you?" Sam asked as he looked like he was about the same age as them.

"Twenty eight, I turn twenty nine in a couple of months," Tommy said as Sam managed to nod. He was only a couple of years younger than Tommy and he knew that their experience was so much different. They had already been battle tested before they were even twenty and they had been hardened by that in some ways. "But you'll find out the entire truth about us soon enough, trust me you've got some Power Ranger history to learn."

"The others?" Madeline asked as Tommy just shook his head.

"They are still in school, we can't pull them out and yes you were in school too, but theirs is high school. The government told us that we had to have a ranger team, they understand that your job has drastically changed, but the kids still have to go to school. We did while we were in their shoes and we handled it just fine," Tommy said as they nodded. They could definitely understand where they were coming from with that. They were kids and they couldn't expect them to just give up their life. The military members, had already given up at certain bit of their life, so this was very believable for them to have to do this.

"Are they going to find out everything that we find out?" Sam asked as Tommy sat down at his desk and began pulling things up from his computer, knowing that he had a lot to look for. There was so much that they needed to be told and so much that he could show them, but there was a lot that he was going to have to have his wife there with him for.

"No, I'm going to show them the same video, but some of the situations and more emotionally charged things, you are only going to find out about. I can't put my wife through talking about some of it over and over. She's going to go through enough saying it one time," Tommy said as Madeline nodded. She knew that Kimberly couldn't do it, especially after being up for about four hours.

"When is she coming?" Madeline asked as Tommy looked down at his watch and then covered his face.

"Her alarm clock went off about fifteen minutes ago and since she hasn't called me, I think she just went back to sleep and I don't blame her. We'll talk about some of the things that you will now be required to do first and hopefully by the time we're done, she'll be up to coming in," Tommy said as the door slid open and Kim walked in carrying a bottle of sprite and crackers. "Maybe not…"

"Why'd you have to leave the damn alarm clock on?" Kim asked as he looked down at the floor and Madeline couldn't help but laugh. She couldn't tell if Kim was serious or not, but she had seen them fight before. It usually was something funny to watch.

"Sorry," Tommy said as Kim sat down next to him and looked over at the older rangers.

"You'll be forgiven, as long as you never do that again," Kim said as Tommy nodded and just shook his head.

"You can go to the back room and sleep if you want," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head no. She had already gotten herself up and taken a shower, so she was going to get through everything that was ahead of her today. She would get back at Tommy tonight when they were alone.

"What are we talking to them about today?" Kim asked as Tommy cringed and then handed her the sheet of paper that he had in his hands. She then placed her head in her hands and let out a disgruntled groan. This was not the type of news that she liked to see this early in the morning.

"You sure you don't want that nap?" Tommy said as Kim managed to nod her head yes that she was sure about it all. She just wanted to explain everything and have it off her chest as soon as humanly possible.

"Let's just get it over with. Our history, alone, is going to take until lunch," Kim said as Tommy barely nodded. That was why he had wanted her to sleep in this morning. It would have been so much easier on the both of them if she had.

"Your history?" Sam asked as Kim ran her hand over her face and Tommy reached over and put his arm around her.

"Yes, you have a lot of things that you should know about me, actually about us before you begin working with us," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head in agreement. They already had them jumping in blind, but they did not want them to be blind about when they dealt with the two of them.

"We're the people that the government is the most worried about, even though they won't say that to us. They are worried about a ranger turning against the earth and destroying us all. Guess what, we've both been that person and we've both come pretty damn close to doing just that. You have to trust me when I say that is not a pleasant thing to live with later on," Kim said as Madeline and Maddox just stared at them. They could not believe that the two of them even had an evil bone in their bodies. It just didn't make any sense to them that the government would be the most worried about them.

"You're kidding. The two of you couldn't have been evil," Madeline said as Kim shook her head that that was definitely not the story. She had been there and although she didn't want to retell it to them, it was necessary. They needed to know what might happen to them if they let their guard down for too long.

"We've both had it happen a couple of times and there is no way to prevent it, believe me, we've done everything to try to keep it from happening, but it still does even with the best prevention in the world," Tommy said as Kim stood up and walked away from them all. She did not want to reveal the last time that she had been evil, because it was way too recently and it cost them so much. "But we'll get to the evil parts in a little while. First we have to start with our first ranger team."

"First team? You've been on more than one?" Sam asked as Kim just looked at him. This man was going to press every nerve in her body and he could tell that he was doing that and she knew Tommy would not stand for that much longer.

"You think that they would pick people to mentor you that had only been on one damn team? You're not that smart and stupid questions piss me off when I've got this much crap to deal with," Kim said as Tommy pulled her down into a seat next to him and Sam just stared at her.

"You know, the two of you should probably stay away from each other for the next few days," Tommy said as he looked at the side of Kim's face, as she was taking in deep breaths trying to calm herself down without Tommy having to walk her outside and let her yell at him. "Just let us tell the story and feel free to ask questions that don't seem redundant. You have to be a little bit smart around here because we just don't have to time to answer every single question that you have."

"So that means keep your mouth shut and run the questions past us first," Madeline said as Sam just shook his head, but saw that Tommy was nodding his head in agreement. He did not want for his wife to go into premature labor because of all of this. It had been stressful enough over the past seven months and now things were starting to get worse.

"I guess I need to start," Kim said as Tommy nodded. Although he knew exactly how the rangers had formed, she had been there in the beginning and had an insiders view of it all. "I'm one of the original five that became Power Rangers in September of 1992. Our town was attacked and Zordon brought us into the Command Center and asked us to become rangers. We did, although we had some reservations about it. We were fine, for the first few months."

"Then I came along," Tommy said as Kim barely nodded. It was the truth, but most people here would not understand the full meaning of that statement for several more hours.

"Yeah, you came along and we had to face our first challenge, an evil ranger," Kim said and Tommy looked away from them. This was the time that he had hurt them the most as an evil ranger and he hated reliving it but it was part of the facts of life. "Rita Repulsa decided that he would be the perfect person to try to defeat the rangers and he almost did it, but we got him back."

"Yeah and then I went through the trauma of losing my green ranger powers, twice and then I became the white ranger," Tommy said as Kim barely was able to cover her face as she started to blush at the memory of what had happened on the day that he had come back as the white ranger. "I also became the leader of the rangers."

"And then I was almost killed by an evil, soon to be, pink ranger…" Kim trailed off as Tommy looked over at her and managed to look away just in time. "She might come in some times and we don't want to prejudice you against her."

"Then I went through about three different teams and a funny thing happened after that…we went to Murthianthius," Tommy said as Kim covered his mouth and they could see the edges of his mouth turn up. "That was when she first became evil."

"That's not really fair, Tommy. It's not like I really wanted to do that, Divatox captured me to be a sacrifice and it didn't really work correctly," Kim said as Tommy nodded.

"I'm glad that it didn't, otherwise you'd be dead and there'd be no us and I don't know if I can really take that idea right now," Tommy said as Kim nodded and he then felt her wrap her arms around him.

"Yeah, we might want to mention that we weren't really talking to each other then as well," Kim said as Tommy nodded and just shook his head.

"Don't bring up the damn letter, I don't want to think about it," Tommy said as Kim laughed and then managed to pull out his wallet. "Kim, no…"

"I know you still keep the thing in your wallet," Kim said as she began rifling through it and Tommy just shook his head. She was the one who wrote it, but she didn't have a problem letting them see what all of this had done to them. "They need to know that there are some things that might happen to them that will scar them for life."

"A letter?" Sam asked looking at Tommy and he then caught the glare from the both of them as Kim finally dug it out of his wallet a handed it over to Madeline.

"I owe him an ass whooping once I have the baby," Kim said as Tommy looked over at her, knowing that she was dead serious and that Sam was not likely to think that she was serious.

"You can't expect someone to do a complete three sixty overnight," Tommy said as Kim just looked at him and he shrugged. "You certainly didn't."

"I can't believe that you…both of you seem so happy together," Madeline said as she casually handed the letter over to Maddox, who had been reading over her shoulder, but had not managed to finish it as quickly as she had.

"That's hard to keep up when you live three thousand miles away from each other and you don't talk to each other because there is always a battle or a monster or you're wiped out from practicing all day. It's not something that I'm proud of, but it is part of the stress of this job, that you need to realize will be here," Kim said as Madeline nodded and Maddox then passed the letter onto Sam, staring at the two of them. He was afraid of what Sam might say to them, but he was more interested in figuring out what was going on with them.

"So, what did you do while you were evil?" Madeline asked, figuring that it would take Sam a little while to read the letter and come up with another question that might just get him killed before he ever had a chance to fight the monster that lay ahead of them.

"I didn't come back to him. I was so frustrated and hurt that right then and there I made the decision that I wouldn't come back to him. I pissed a lot of people off that day," Kim said as Tommy nodded his head in agreement. "So, you don't have a happy ending, yet."

"And you still have a couple more teams for me to tell about," Tommy said as Madeline's mouth dropped open and Maddox just shook his head to try to make sure that he was hearing all of this correctly. It didn't seem possible that someone could be on this many ranger teams and not be discovered until more than a decade later. "It's just a mission to the moon and Dino Thunder."

"A mission to the moon?" Madeline asked, semi-hysterically, as Maddox reached over and put his arm around her. "I don't think you made the right decision."

"You're not the first person to say that, Madeline. He actually was the first one and let me tell you this much, we kinda know what we're doing, so just trust us on our decisions for right now," Kim said as Tommy nodded his head that it was true that he had not believed in himself when he was first a ranger.

"But you learn as you go along and trust me, you wouldn't be here if you couldn't handle it all, but let's get back to those last two teams," Tommy said as Maddox and Madeline nodded that he could go ahead. "The mission to the moon was to defeat the remnants of the Machine Empire about five years ago and then a couple of years back I found these gems and became a mentor and then a ranger on my final team."

"That's it? We don't get the story of how the two of you happened to get back together after hating each other for so long?" Madeline asked as Kim looked over at Tommy, asking him permission to tell the story.

"The Machine Empire thought it would be funny to capture me, little did they know the wrath that they were going to have brought to them," Kim said as Madeline nodded. She could imagine what Tommy would do when he found out that Kimberly had been captured by some maniacal creature. "I wasn't exactly in great condition when they go to me."

"That's an understatement," Jason said as he walked in and sat down on the other side of Kim. "I've never seen you look that bad."

"It was just because I was there for a couple of weeks," Kim said as Madeline's eyes widened in shock. She had been sure that the rangers would not take a couple of weeks to find each other. It didn't seem like something that they would be able to live with. "Not that they weren't trying to get to me, but there were a lot of kinks that had to be worked out. Everything kinda started there, I wasn't evil that time and I didn't refuse any help, especially when I saw who my rescuers were when we got back to Earth."

"You got to see them?" Madeline asked as Kim nodded her head yes.

"It's kinda hard to keep a former ranger in the dark, I recognized a lot of the uniforms and by that I knew who some of them were or could hazard a guess at the very least," Kim said as Madeline nodded.

"We all started a lot of healing that day," Jason said as Kim nodded and looked down at her lap as Tommy took in a deep breath.

"I had made a promise to myself that if I ever saw her again, that I would try, I wouldn't be an asshole and not tell her the truth. I didn't think I'd ever see her in that situation again, but it happened," Tommy said as he reached over for her hand and gently took it in his own and felt her shaking.

"We just decided to try to be friends," Kim said as Jason smiled and Tommy began shaking from the laughter he was holding in. "That lasted all of two weeks."

"Two weeks?" Sam asked as Kim and Tommy looked over at him. They were going to put a stop to the insinuation that they saw flaring up in his eyes. Just because it was what he would do, it was not what they would do at all.

"We weren't having sex after two weeks, but we certainly weren't just friends anymore either," Kim said as Sam just nodded and then Tommy looked at the new rangers in front of them.

"I know that this isn't a lot of ranger stuff, it's more personal, but you need to know us. You need to know what makes us tick and why we get pissed off when people say certain things. There will come a time when none of this will be important, but for the next few weeks, this history is what will get you through being with us. The other rangers have a similar history, maybe not as many ups and downs, but they still have felt some hurt as well. We're human, we make mistakes, but we do know what we're doing. We wouldn't be alive if we didn't," Tommy said as they all nodded, although Sam was finding it very hard to do that right now.

"Is there a reason that she's my mentor?" Sam asked as Tommy nodded and Kim placed another cracker in her mouth.

"That letter has a lot to do with it. She knows how hard it is to change and let some things go," Tommy said as Sam just shook his head.

"I'm surprised that you took her back," Sam said as Jason and Tommy, both, pushed Kim back into her seat and held her there.

"You jackass," Madeline said as she looked over at him and Maddox quickly grabbed Sam's arm as he had drawn back to hit Madeline. "You know, you can be hurt by someone and still love them, actually you can love them more than anyone else in the world. Sometimes you push someone away to protect them, I guess that's something you don't understand."

"You don't do that to protect someone," Sam said as Tommy looked over at Kim and she nodded that he could go ahead.

"Actually it is, she was so convinced that I was unhappy with her, that she cut me free. Yeah, it hurt the both of us, but when that is what you think is the best, it's different than dumping someone for the hell of it," Tommy said as Kim managed to stand up and then walked away from the group and Jason followed her. "Jason and I have some things that we are going to talk with everyone about at about four. Madeline, I want you and Maddox to work together on sparring after lunch. Sam, you're with me."

"How long do we have for lunch?" Madeline asked as Tommy looked down at his watch and then thought about it for a few seconds.

"Be back by one and be on the mats by one thirty," Tommy said as they all nodded and then got up to exit the room. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine, Tommy," Kim said as she took in a shaky breath and he put his arms around her in a comforting hug.

"How's little one doing?" Tommy asked as she looked up at him and smiled.

"Little one has settled down some. I don't feel like my stomach is doing somersaults anymore, so that's a good sign," Kim said as she looked over at Jason, who was just shaking his head.

"Trini is bringing lunch by, so I hope that you're hungry," Jason said as Kim gulped and managed to nod. "She'll let you eat your crackers if it's all you can keep down."

"That's nice to know," Kim said as the doors closed behind the rangers and they stepped out into the middle of Angel Grove. They didn't have a clue where they were or why this place had been chosen to house them, but they knew better than to ask about it right now.

--------------------

"Quite an interesting first day among the rangers," Fred said as Madeline managed to nod. They knew that there was still so much to tell, but they also knew that they had been sitting here for far too long and needed to be able to get up and walk around some.

"Yeah, that was the first of many interesting days," Maddox said as Madeline stretched against him and he smiled over at her. He had a lot to be happy about with his ranger career and one of those things was sitting next to him right now.


	6. Problematic Omens

"That was the end of the first day?" Fred asked as Madeline just shook her head no. This had to be the densest person that they could send to ask about their ranger career, however short lived it was. It made sense that they would send someone who would not ask the right questions, but that was definitely something that none of them wanted to deal with.

"No, that was only the end of what Kim and Tommy had to say to us. We still haven't gotten to the first practice and everything that they had to tell us later that day," Maddox said as Fred let out a sigh and Madeline looked over at him warily. He knew that things were not going to go well right now.

"There is more?" Fred asked as Madeline managed to hold in the first comment that came into her head. She knew that if she said that then she would be thrown out and Sam would slant the story to where it sounded like Kim and Tommy were the devils in disguise on earth. He had never been able to fully get over the truths that they had made him face and none of the others wanted to risk anything happening to Kim and Tommy because something was misconstrued.

"No, we are here wasting the government's time because they think that these people that they picked to be on their PANEL wasted government dollars. We have to get you to understand that the government is being a bunch of assholes and that all they have done is perform the service that was asked of them," Madeline said as Garrett nodded his head in agreement. He had never seen a government do this sort of thing before to people that had been helping them.

"Well, I guess we should go back to the story," Fred said as Madeline nodded her head yes and then looked around at the others. All of this was something that they had seen coming for a long time, but they would get to that day later.

-----------

"Let's see how well you do," Tommy said as he settled across from Sam on the mat and Madeline and Maddox began sparring together.

"You are far too confident," Sam said as Tommy threw his arms up in the air and Jason and Kim smiled. They knew if he was this frustrated right now then everything else was not going to be pretty for Sam.

"You know that he is about to get his ass handed to him on a platter, right?" Jason said as Kim nodded her head yes. They both knew that the man had been the one thing that had plagued the other two for the past several months and she was sure they would appreciate Tommy's nice ass whooping. Tommy had to be able to figure out exactly where they were skill wise and he knew where both Madeline and Maddox were. He, however, had absolutely no clue where Sam was and had to test him to see exactly what was necessary.

"I wouldn't expect it any other way from Tommy," Kim said as Jason looked down at her. He could tell that she was becoming more worn down lately, even if Tommy didn't want to admit that to any of them. He knew that Kim must start taking better care of herself or their child might not survive. All of them knew that the stresses had become more than they ever wanted to face, but as rangers they had always been able to pull through, the thing was they could not risk having the stress overwhelm them in the way that it seemed it might. "What's that look for?"

"It's not for much of anything," Jason said as he pulled her over to a bench and they sat down. He felt like he had to be honest with her, even if now was not the best time to do that. He knew just how likely it was for her to breakdown in the middle of everyone, but he knew that if he waited there could be worse repercussions than a few tears shed. "You just have looked worn down the last few weeks. I can't help but be worried about you, considering the past issues that you have had in recent years with similar situations.""But I am worn down Jason, there is no denying what all of this has taken out of me," Kim said as he looked at her and she just shook her head. She didn't want for him to press the issue, when Tommy had not even said anything about it to her. "The last few weeks have been rough on me. Tommy hasn't been coming in until late and I can't sleep without him and last night I got up at three and threw up for three hours. I haven't had it easy, Jase, but we'll make it as long as no monster becomes involved."

"I know, but it shouldn't be affecting you this much. You've been stressed the entire time, but it seems you aren't taking it as well as you were a few months ago," Jason said as Sam landed on the ground with a thud a few feet away from them and was scrambling to his feet as Tommy continued to approach. "Have you talked to your doctor about it?"

"What is there to talk about Jason?" Kim asked as he gave her a look and she sighed. The real reason that she hadn't talked to a doctor had nothing to do with the doctor and everything to do with Tommy's mental well being. She did not want for her husband to get anymore stress on him than what he already had. "I don't want to worry him, he's had enough on his mind without any of this coming up. I'll talk to him when I have to. It's not bad enough for me to mention it to him right now."

"You need to Kim, that baby means a lot to the both of you and I know that neither of you will be able to live with yourself if something happens that either of you could have prevented," Jason said as Kim nodded and she looked over at her husband and watched as he was steadily breaking the black ranger down. She knew that it was only a matter of time before he felt her gaze, but she could not pull her eyes away from him. "Do you need to go today?"

"I'll talk to him tonight and we'll get an appointment as soon as we can," Kim said as Jason nodded. He couldn't really expect much more from her, as he was asking a lot just for her to go. He knew that the reason she had been so quiet was Tommy, there was nothing else that would make her be this quiet.

"What's so serious?" Tommy asked looking over at the two of them, not liking the look that he saw in his wife's eyes when they met his. She only looked away quickly from him when she didn't want him to read into her expression too much. He knew that something must be wrong for her to look away like that, but he didn't want to think about it. He wanted for all of it to just be a figment of his imagination.

"Don't worry about it, we'll talk later," Kim said as Sam nailed Tommy in the shoulder and he turned to the man and then slammed him to the floor and walked off. It was going to take Sam awhile to gather himself up from that blow and Tommy knew that he needed to take care of his wife before he took care of the rangers.

"No, we'll talk now," Tommy said as he pulled her up and she looked over at Jason, begging him to come up with something that would satisfy Tommy's curiosity for the moment. She didn't want for him to demand that they go to the doctor today when he heard everything, but she knew that was likely to happen with him. She knew that he was going to be mad at her and she just didn't want to hear it from him. She didn't know if she could stand his disappointment right now.

"No more sneak attacks," Jason said as Sam had been sneaking up behind Tommy ready to strike him when the opportunity presented itself. "The two of them have some important things to talk about and that does not include you."

"So he can just walk off during a practice session?" Sam asked as Jason nodded his head yes. Tommy had free reign and he also had a lot to worry about other than the ranger responsibilities.

"He'll be back," Madeline said as she and Maddox continued to spar. "He just needs to talk to Kim, it's not like they've had any time this past week."

"They should have had plenty," Sam said as Jason just shook his head. There was a lot that they had to teach this guy, quickly, or he would find himself in a world of hurt that would come directly from Tommy.

"Newsflash, they own a dojo/gymnastics center about three blocks away from here, while Tommy was searching for rangers, she's had to run it by herself. He has been getting home at all hours of the night because of meetings he has been forced to have and he barely has enough time to say hello to his own wife anymore. So don't think that is enough time and if that is your definition of enough, we need to have another long talk," Jason said as Sam barely nodded. He was not sure that he could endure another lecture from Tommy or from Jason at this point. It seemed that all of the rangers held their morals to a very high standard and he needed to figure out a way to meet those standards without completely changing, although he got the feeling that they would all love that to happen to him.

----------

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked as he pulled her into his lap and looked into her eyes. He was worried about her, they all knew it, but he could see that there were some things that he had missed in the last few weeks while he was busy being a ranger scout. He had promised himself that if he saw her getting worse, he would hand it over to one of the others. The problem was, that they barely spent five minutes a day talking over the last few weeks and he hadn't had time to notice that she was growing more tired and irritable. He had just thought that it was normal stress, but he could now see that it was not.

"It's just been stressful these past couple of weeks," Kim said as Tommy gave her a skeptical look and she then sighed. He was not going to let her get away without giving him a true explanation. "I just haven't felt so great."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Tommy asked as she just shook her head.

"You've had so much on your mind lately, I didn't want for you to have to worry about me," Kim said as he just stared at her. He could not believe that those words had come out of her mouth. Didn't she know that she mattered to him more than any other person in the work? "Please don't look at me like that, Tommy."

"You are my wife, I am supposed to worry about you," Tommy said as Kim just looked away from him. This was exactly how she expected him to react to everything and he hadn't even asked exactly what had been wrong with her…yet. She knew that it was coming, she just hoped that he would take it all right. "I want you to tell me what's been going on, I need to know that you'll be all right because I can't think about anything else if you are not doing good."

"I've just been drained Tommy, you know how it is when you've got a lot of work. I just have to get used to pulling more weight at the dojo, I'm sure that I'll be fine in a couple of weeks," Kim said as Tommy shook his head and she sighed. She hated that he could see through her so easily. She just wanted for him to take what she said as face value, but he was reading into everything else far too much. "I've been having some dizzy spells, but other than that, I've been fine."

"Do you need to go to the doctor?" Tommy asked as she nodded her head yes and he then nodded his own, trying to take it in and not get mad at her. He knew that if he got mad at her, then it would not help her at all and that was what he wanted to do right now. He wanted to help her, not make her withdraw from him. "Go ahead and call and see if you can get an appointment for today, if not get one as soon as you can and until you've gone, the dojo is going to have to stay closed."

"Tommy, I'm fine to run it, I just have to get used to it," Kim said as he shook his head no and she let out a frustrated sigh.

"You're not Kim, if you were you wouldn't be having morning sickness again," Tommy said as Kim just looked at the floor. He definitely had a point there that she could not fight, no matter how hard she tried. "Baby, I just don't want anything to happen to you, but don't worry, I'm sure that you'll be back there soon."

"I'm worried that the doctors will tell me that I can't do anything Tommy. I don't want for that to happen, I want to be able to be with you through all of this," Kim said as Tommy could see the concern in her eyes and he quietly looked down. She was putting him in a very tough spot right now and they both knew that all too well. He needed her there with him, but he also knew that she couldn't risk her health right now. If she did risk her health, then there was a very good chance that something would happen to the baby, and he knew that they would not survive that again.

"Just call, I need to go back out and try to get that kid into fighting condition," Tommy said as Kim nodded and then pulled out her cell phone and began scrolling through it for the doctor's number.

"You okay?" Jason asked as Tommy shook his head no and then looked over at Sam who was now picking on Madeline, who had the look in her eyes that she was about to pull out all the stops.

"I have some stuff that I shouldn't have neglected," Tommy said as Jason just looked at him with at look that clearly said 'I told you so'. "I don't need a speech, I've gotten enough of one already."

"Don't feel bad, you didn't see it because you didn't want to see it, Tommy. You wanted for Kim to be healthy and fine and she has been, but these last few weeks have knocked her for a loop. It was a lot on all of us when we found out that we had to put a ranger team together in only a few weeks," Jason said as Tommy managed to nod his head, but he felt absolutely disgusted with himself. It was his wife and their child that were in danger and he had completely ignored all the signs that she was under too much pressure. He knew that he would have seen it, if he would have looked for it. He just thought that Kim would tell him if something was going wrong with her, but she didn't want to worry him, which was something that he loved about her, but right now it was pissing him off. "If you want to I can finish up all the stuff that you had planned for today and you can just take her to the doctor."

"No, it's my job, Jason, whether I like it or not I have to be the one to work with them right now," Tommy said as Jason nodded as Tommy let out a sigh and headed for Sam. The emotions that were bubbling up in him always made him a deadly fighter and he now felt sorry for the man that would stand across from him.

"I'm just trying to teach her some proper technique," Sam said as Madeline cut his feet out from under him and he fell to the ground with a thud as Madeline glared down at him. "Seems to catch on well."

"I don't have the patience for it today, Sam," Tommy said as he pulled him up and Madeline gave him a concerned look. She couldn't remember Tommy looking like this before and she had known him the longest out of the five rangers. There was something in his eyes that made her want to take a step back and rethink everything that she had just agreed to do.

"You are supposed to have legendary patience," Sam said as Kim walked back in and sat down next to Jason. "You had a fight with your wife and you're preaching to me?"

"We didn't have a fight, believe me you'd know if we had a fight," Tommy said as he looked back at Kim and she just shook her head and he let out a sigh. "Great."

"She all right?" Madeline asked as Tommy just shook his head no and then turned back to them.

"There is a lot we have to do today and I need to get an honest assessment of your skills. I know what the other two can do," Tommy said looking Sam in the eyes and he just nodded. He could respect that the man had a lot on him right now.

"He's not happy," Jason said as Kim just looked at him. What had he expected from him? Because she certainly had not expected from him to be jumping for joy when she told him that she was under the weather and had been for the last few weeks and had just avoided telling him about it. "You couldn't get a doctor's appointment, could you?"

"No, they can't fit me in until next week," Kim said as Jason just looked at her. "I can't do anything about it, it was the earliest one that they had."

"You know that is going to piss him off," Jason said as Kim nodded. She knew that he knew that they were going to have to wait for awhile and that was not something he agreed with.

"He already is mad, Jason and he's mad at himself which makes it worse," Kim said as Jason looked over at her. "He blames himself for not knowing what's going on with me and yeah he would have probably noticed before I did that something was wrong if we didn't have all this shit on us, but I don't blame him. I didn't tell him, I wanted for him to be able to have some time when he was able to not worry about me and focus on the rangers before I had to tell him exactly how I feel."

"I know, but that's just the way that Tommy is," Jason said as Kim watched Sam land on the floor with a thump and Tommy then reached down and pulled him up. It was obvious to all of them that he had done all of the assessment that he could do today. His mind was in a very dangerous place right now and he did not need to have to fight anything or anyone. He knew that he might injure them and that was something that he wanted to avoid at all costs.

"I'm going to take you home and then I'll be back here to help with the other crap," Tommy said as Jason nodded and Kim just looked up at him. She could not believe that he was making her leave. "Please, don't give me that look Kim. I need to do this for my own sanity, okay?"

"Okay," Kim barely whispered as he pulled her up from the bench and walked her out the door as the others watched them go and then looked at Jason.

"What's wrong?" Madeline asked as Jason just shook his head. He was sure that Madeline did not want to know what was going on. "Jason, what's wrong with Kim?"

"I don't know and that is something that scares me and I know it scares Tommy. There's a lot of other things that have gone on that you don't know about with them. They didn't tell you everything, they didn't tell you a lot of the problems that they have had, so just let them be cautious. They have to be," Jason said as Madeline nodded and Maddox just looked over at her, wondering what in the world it could be to have Jason talking to them like this. "Garrett and BethAnn will be here soon, so I don't want for you to scare them off with everything you've learned, because you are going to hear worse before it's over."

"What could possibly be worse?" Madeline asked as Jason just looked over at her. There was a lot that they hadn't been told and he was sure that Tommy was going to drop all of it on them tonight. He knew that Tommy couldn't just let it be, not after everything that he found out today that he didn't wish to know.

"He was going to try to ease all of you into the information that we have, but it seems like he's going to just tell you everything, not that I blame him. The nights that he has spent away from his wife are haunting him right now. Tommy cares about that woman more than he cares about whether or not a monster is defeated, so if he has to choose, it's no choice; he'll choose her every time," Jason said as the others nodded. They knew enough to be able to figure out that the two of them were close. They did expect it from a husband and wife, but with everything else, they knew that there was always a chance that Tommy might decide that he needed to do something with the ranger world and leave her alone. Now they knew where he stood and that it was much more firm than some of them had thought it would be.


	7. Thrown Away

"Tommy, I'll be fine," Kim said as he opened the door to their home and walked her inside, but she felt that something was wrong. She just didn't know what it could be. She didn't want to tell Tommy that she had a sinking feeling that something was amiss here. She didn't think that he needed to hear that from her right now, especially if she couldn't figure out what it was. There was no need to worry him anymore than he already was

"I don't want to fight about this, I just want to make sure that you're safe. Please just do this for me until we can go to the doctor and if he says that you're fine, I will let you go back to work that day without a single question, but until then I just want to be careful," Tommy said as Kim walked over to their bedroom door and as she opened it felt a shock go through her as she was thrown across the room and landed in a crumpled pile, with Tommy staring towards their room and the being that was exiting it. He recognized him all too well, but that was not the thing that most concerned him at the moment, what most concerned him was the fact that Kim hadn't moved and was just lying in a heap.

"It's good to see you again Dr. Oliver," Halindon said as Tommy took a defensive stance in front of his wife, while he sent out the warning signal from his communicator. He had thought that they would have longer to prepare these rangers, but he had been wrong. The threat had come before he had even been able to show them how to morph. He hoped that Jason would have enough sense to instruct them on how to do that on the fly, because he certainly was not going to have enough time or brain cells to do that. His concentration was on making Halindon pay for what he had done to Kimberly.

"You son of a bitch," Tommy said as Halindon started towards him and began attacking, all the while, trying to get closer to Kimberly. He knew if he could take away another child from the two of them, it might send them to the point of no return and their rangers would have absolutely no help. He needed for the two of them to be out of the picture for as long as possible. They were far too valuable to any ranger team that they came across and he knew that getting their focus onto something else would help his cause greatly.

"What the hell," Madeline said as they landed in the room and saw Kim lying on the floor as Tommy backed the man into the corner, as far away from Kim as he could manage. He barely recognized that the rangers had appeared, but he was going to put them to good work now that they were here.

"Get her out of here, Madeline," Tommy ordered as Maddox and Sam looked between Tommy and where Kimberly was laying. They were sure that he had a purpose with every move that he was making right now, but there was no telling how long he would hold out, although none of them really knew what he was capable of, except the rangers that served with him. They knew what Tommy could do with the right motivation and they were certain that he had that now. "Billy should be there soon enough to take care of anyone that's hurt. Tell Jason to try to wake her up and come back."

"You'll lose another baby, Tommy," Halindon said as Tommy threw the being through a window and he jumped out of it and followed the man onto the lawn. The neighbors looked out and saw the monster and immediately bolted their doors and went about their business. They were sure that Tommy would take care of it, he always did when something like this showed up.

"Tommy, you have no powers, stop," Madeline said as she stood in front of the veteran ranger and held him back from the monster for a millisecond before he went around her and began his attack again. He was not going to let anyone else do this, he was the one that should make Halindon pay back for everything that he might be costing them right now. "Tommy!"

"Madeline, I think we're here to take care of those," Maddox said as the vinons started landing around them and she looked around in shock. It seemed like they had not even seen a fraction of whatever this thing had for them.

"No, Jason told me that Tommy needs to leave, he doesn't need to get hurt because of everything that is going on with Kim," Madeline said as she started fighting the things that were surrounding them and Maddox just shook his head.

"I wouldn't worry about Tommy," Maddox said as he turned his attention to the beings in front of them. No matter what was going on, he knew that it was no good trying to get Tommy away from here when he felt like killing the being in front of him. "He can take care of himself."

"I'm surprised that you still know how to fight," Halindon said as Tommy nailed him and continued to glare at him. He was sure that Halindon could feel the energy floating off of him and he hoped that he was making his point loud and clear. He had been through enough and he could not stand to go through anymore without heavily injuring whatever did the damage.

"Go to hell," Tommy said as Halindon laughed and Tommy went after him with more ferocity than before, he was getting tired of this and his thoughts were starting to turn towards his wife. He did not want for anything to happen to her if he could help it and he had taken her home and insisted that she do nothing and then she was the one that got thrown into a wall, not him. He was the one that deserved to have that happen, at least if it happened to him then they'd both just be sitting the Command Center waiting for him to wake up.

"You first," Halindon said as Tommy practically roared and the other rangers watched as he glowed an eerie shade of white and the vinons cowered from the force that came out of him as Halindon staggered backwards. He had gone just a step too far. He had never meant to bring out the remainder of Tommy's powers as he could tell that it was a vast expanse. He then fled from the situation as quickly as possible, before Tommy managed to hurtle him through several buildings with the energy that was building up inside of him.

"Tommy?" Madeline asked, as she carefully approached him and watched as he started looking less like a streak of white and more like a human. She could hear that his breathing was haggard, but other than that he seemed fine. She had been afraid that he would pass out when he started looking more normal, but he seemed to have everything under control.

"Just get me to Kim," Tommy muttered as Madeline nodded as she grabbed Tommy's arm and teleported him away, with the other two following only moments later.

"Tommy, what have you done?" Jason asked as he looked over at his friend and saw the look in his eyes. He could tell that if Tommy had it his way Halindon would no longer be breathing but something had obviously been thrown into his plan of attack. "You just couldn't walk away, could you?"

"He threw my wife into a wall, he deserved everything that he got from me and he didn't get enough if you ask me," Tommy said, as they all heard, for the first time, the deadly serious tone that made them flinch. They had never thought that someone could be that cold and yet be a likable person, but Tommy was a very likeable person, until you messed with someone that he loved dearly. Then you got to see the side of him that scared everyone to death, even his best friends knew that there were certain lines to never cross with him and some of them had just been crossed.

"Billy hasn't been able to wake her up, Tommy," Jason said, quietly, as Tommy just shook his head and then walked back towards the medical bay. He had hoped that he would never see his wife on a gurney again, but that was not the case tonight.

"What's going to happen?" Madeline asked as she looked over at Jason and he could see that she was scared. She had often been around Tommy, but she had never been around him when things were going like this. She had never seen him when he was absolutely furious about something and it scared her more than she ever thought that it would.

"I don't know, but all of you are not going to be able to get his nice introduction to being a ranger. Trust me, as soon as the others get here, he's going to let you know everything, even if they haven't been able to wake Kim up," Jason said as Trini ran in through the front doors and up to Jason. She had just gotten the message from Billy and had run here as quickly as she could.

"What happened?" Trini asked as she pulled off her high heels and placed her purse on the coat rack that they had in the corner. As she was doing this, the new rangers took her in, carefully. They knew that she was a friend, but they were still highly suspicious of anyone that came around them that they had not been formally introduced to. "I didn't think that Halindon would try to go after them again, considering what Tommy did to him last time."

"He wants to hurt Tommy, more than anything and he seems to be figuring out some pretty good ways," Jason said as Trini gave him a kiss on the cheek and then ran towards the medical bay to help Billy and Tommy.

"I take it that Tommy has a lot of enemies," Sam said as Jason looked over at him. That was not even half the truth and he knew that Tommy was going to probably spill that secret tonight, so he was not going to worry about it right now.

"He has just a few," Jason said as Trini jogged back out and Jason looked back at her. "Why are you back so quickly?"

"She's awake, but she's cramping," Trini said as Jason's posture just sagged and Trini shook her head. She did not want for Jason to even consider the possibility that was going through his head. "I'm calling an ambulance, hopefully we'll be able to get her to the hospital before anything bad happens or at the very least, in time for them to get medicine to the baby."

"Trini, they can't…" Jason started as she nodded, but she wanted to cut him off. She knew that the new rangers didn't need to hear about everything that Kim and Tommy had given up to save them in the past. It would honestly make them feel guilty that they were not there.

"I know," Trini said as she dialed 911 and waited for the operator to answer.

-----------

"Ah," Kim moaned as she tensed and she clenched down on Tommy's hand. "It's too early, Tommy."

"Shh…everything is going to be fine, don't worry, relax," Tommy said, soothingly, as he looked over at Billy who was keeping track of how long it was between contractions. Billy only spared him a grave look before going back to his watch. It was too close for his own comfort and he did not see how it would be reversed. He could only hope that she would be able to hold out long enough for them to get some medicine to the baby. "The paramedics are on their way."

"I can't lose another baby, Tommy," Kim cried as she fought the urge to push and he could see it in her face.

"We won't," Tommy said, as reassuringly as he could and she clenched her legs together and he gently reached over and lifted her up and then sat behind her. It was killing him to watch this happen, but he knew there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening. Her body was just reacting to the stress and her being thrown into a wall certainly didn't help it any.

"Don't fight it, Kim," Billy said as he walked over to her and she just shook her head as the tears fell down her face. "You are far enough along that the baby will have a chance."

"No, Billy," Kim said as she trembled in Tommy's arms and he gently rubbed her side. She then looked up at Tommy and he just nodded that it was okay, she didn't have to hold back. He couldn't stand to see her in this much pain and he knew that it was better to let her push than for her to continue to go through what she was going through.

"It's okay," Tommy said as she buried her face in his neck and pushed, as the urge became too great.

"The ambulance will be here in a little while," Trini said as she walked up to Billy who merely nodded and discarded the stopwatch.

"Get the oxygen ready," Billy said as Trini just looked at him and he nodded that the labor had come too quickly for them to be able to stop it. They were just going to have to make do with what they had and hope that nothing too bad happened.

"Okay…" Trini said with a shaky breath as Tommy looked down at Kim and closed his own eyes. He hated knowing that this was happening again. Hopefully, she had been able to carry the baby long enough that he or she would survive.

"Go ask if any of them have any medical experience," Billy said as Trini nodded and quickly exited the room.

"Hold out for a little while longer," Tommy said as Kim screamed and he looked down at her and Billy shook his head. He did not like what was going on here and he was worried about the possible repercussions.

"Tommy, please," Kim whimpered as he felt her shake even more as she struggled with her body.

"Stay with me, everything will be fine," Tommy said, as he watched her eyes roll back and she went limp against him. "Billy…"

"I know, Tommy," Billy said as he could feel the head and just looked back up at Kim. That should have killed her right now.

"I'm not an expert," the paramedic said as Trini shoved him into the room and he saw the whole expanse of the problem.

"Fuck it, I'll teleport her," Tommy said as he gathered her up and transported her into her doctor's office and he couldn't help but jump as they two of them landed there. "She's having the baby."

"How did you?" Dr. Sealnon began to ask as Tommy just shook his head. He was not going to answer that yet, he wouldn't unless he was really pressed for the information. The government had put them with Dr. Sealnon because of his past work, but Tommy still did not completely trust him with everything that was going on in their lives. "What happened here?"

"Just save them," Tommy said, as he did not have time to explain it all and he hoped that Dr. Sealnon would leave this alone until he had operated on Kim. Then he could ask all the questions that he felt that he needed to know the answers to.

"I'll get her right in for an emergency C-Section," Dr. Sealnon said as he motioned for Tommy to follow him and he did. "Has she been under any additional stress lately?"

"Dr. Sealnon, you know what our lives our like, do you think that she's been under extra stress?" Tommy asked as Dr. Sealnon just nodded. There was nothing more that he could do.

"Do you remember exactly how far along she is?" Dr. Sealnon asked, as he did not have the luxury of having her chart right in front of him.

"She's almost at the end of her sixth month, beginning of her seventh," Tommy said as some of the nurses sprang up from the aid station and pulled out a gurney for Tommy to place Kim on.

"I'll do what I can," Dr. Sealnon said as Tommy placed Kim on the gurney and watched as the nurses went into action.

"Take care of her," Tommy said as Dr. Sealnon nodded that he would as he rolled the bed away and Tommy stood there, covered in blood and sweat as a couple of nurses walked over to him and guided him to the waiting room. A few moments later Trini and Jason arrived and sat down next to Tommy.

"They won't let you go back there with her?" Jason asked as Tommy just looked over at him. He couldn't bring himself to talk about anything right now that dealt with her. He just wanted to deny that all of it had happened in the first place. "I left Billy with them and he's going to treat them and then send them home."

"Thanks," Tommy muttered as Trini put her arm around him, as he placed his hands over his face. He could feel the tears burning in the back of his eyes as he forced himself not to cry.

"It's okay," Trini whispered as she pulled him closer and he reached over and began to cry on her shoulder. She knew that things were going to get worse, but hopefully both of them would survive. Tommy couldn't lose either of them right now.

"I'm going to call your parents to let them know what's going on," Jason said putting his hand on Trini's back and Tommy nodded, but barely looked up.

"I can't lose them," Tommy mumbled after several minutes of his sobbing, as Trini merely nodded. She and Jason had a little girl already and if Kim hadn't had a miscarriage a couple of years ago, they would have the oldest child. They all knew that the two of them should have had the oldest ranger kid, but fate just seemed to be interfering with them no matter what they did to stop it.

"I know," Trini said as she heard the door open and a doctor walked out. She had met Dr. Sealnon a couple of times, considering what they were trusting the man with, but she didn't remember his face. All that she could tell was that he was not happy with everything that was going on here.

"Dr. Oliver," Dr. Sealnon said as he walked over and sat down next to him as Tommy slowly released Trini and sat up. "You have a baby boy and he is breathing on his own right now, but we did have to put him in the NICU, you can go see him right now if you want to."

"How's Kim?" Tommy asked as Dr. Sealnon looked at the ground and Tommy started shaking his head. "How is my wife?"

"She's still unconscious, but I'm sure she'll wake up soon," Dr. Sealnon said as Tommy looked at him. He had hoped that she would be awake when she got out of surgery. "She's suffered a good bit of trauma. Her body needs time to recuperate, Tommy."

"Don't tell me that," Tommy said as he managed to hold himself still. He couldn't believe that he let this happen. He had promised himself that this would never happen to her again.

"If you want to go be with your son, go ahead. I'll make sure a nurse comes to get you when she wakes up," Dr. Sealnon said as Tommy just shook his head. He knew that Kim would not take it well if he was not there when she woke up.

"I should be the one to tell her everything," Tommy said as Dr. Sealnon nodded. He knew Tommy would be that way because of everything else that had happened to them lately.

"Okay, I'll take you back," Dr. Sealnon said as Trini looked over at him and Tommy stopped for a moment.

"Tell Jason what's going on and let the others know that we're going to have to have a meeting as soon as possible," Tommy said as Trini nodded and he knew that she would make sure everything he asked was done and even more.

"I have to warn you that she is still under the affects of anesthesia for a little while," Dr. Sealnon said as Tommy just nodded. He had been pretty sure that would be the case.

"I know," Tommy said as Dr. Sealnon stopped in front of a recovery room and motioned that Tommy could go inside.

"Good luck," Dr. Sealnon said as Tommy opened the door and peaked in. He could tell that she was still solidly knocked out from the drugs, but as soon as she came to herself, he knew what her first question would be. Dr. Sealnon's words had been encouraging, but he knew that they still had a long road ahead of them. Their son was going to be in the hospital for a few months, at the very least.

"Hey Beautiful," Tommy said as he sat down next to her and then gave her a kiss on the cheek. She then stirred and looked over at him.

"Tommy?" Kim asked as she tried to sit up, but she felt the pain in her lower abdomen and then looked down. "What happened? Where's the baby?"

"He's in the NICU Kim, but he is breathing on his own. Once you're a little bit stronger, we'll go see him," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head and then forced herself to sit up. "Don't push yourself, Dr. Sealnon promised that if anything happened he would come get me."

"I want to see him, Tommy," Kim said, desperately, as Tommy nodded and then stood to go find a nurse that he could convince to let him wheel Kim to the NICU.

"She wants to what?" Abigail asked as Tommy just looked at the nurse. He thought that it would be obvious that a mother would want to see her child, no matter how sick she was herself. "Are you sure she's up to it?"

"No, but I'm not going to try to convince her otherwise," Tommy said as Abigail barely nodded. She knew how hard it was for mother's that had to be separated from their children.

"Okay, I'll get you a chair and you can take her," Abigail said as Tommy nodded. Kim had never liked wheelchairs, but there was not much that he could do about her having to be in one now.

"Have you seen him, Tommy?" Kim asked as Tommy shook his head no and she nodded. "Why not?"

"I wanted to be the one to tell you. I didn't want for you to have to hear it from a doctor," Tommy said as Kim nodded as he scooped her up and placed her in the chair. "Everything is going to be fine, it's just going to take some time."

"I'm so sorry, Tommy," Kim said as he squatted in front of her and looked her in the eyes. He couldn't believe that she was apologizing when it wasn't even her fault.

"It's okay, it's not your fault," Tommy said as she gulped and he wrapped his arms around her and she sobbed.

"If I had just taken it easy…" Kim trailed off as he made her look him in the eyes.

"It's not your fault that you were slung into a wall by Halindon," Tommy said as Kim gave him a confused look. She didn't remember anything happening to her at home. She just knew that she woke up at the Command Center. "You don't remember, do you? Don't worry, you couldn't have done anything to stop it."

"He attacked?" Kim asked as Tommy nodded his head yes and then stood and walked behind the wheel chair. "Tommy, what are we going to do? We can't risk…"

"I know, I've thought of some things, but we just have to take everything one day at a time right now," Tommy said as Kim barely nodded and reached back and placed her hand over his. She needed him to understand that she was scared, but she didn't want to say that to him.

"Dr. Oliver, Mrs. Oliver," Dr. Sealnon said as they approached him. "Come on, I'll take you back. Let me warn you, he is attached to a lot of machines. We have to keep an eye on his pressures and he's tiny, but somehow he's breathing. We are giving him a little bit of oxygen, but other than that, he is doing good."

"I don't know if I can do this, Tommy," Kim muttered as he looked down at her and then they followed Dr. Sealnon into the NICU.

"You'll need these," Dr. Sealnon said giving them each a mask and they put them on. "I'll give you some time."

"He's so tiny…" Kim muttered as she looked into the incubator and could not help but place her hand on the outside. She wanted so badly to be able to touch him and hold him.

"You know we have to come up with a name some time, Kim," Tommy said as Kim looked up at him. They hadn't even really started talking about names, yet. They had thought that they would have several months to fight it out. "I don't think that Baby Boy Oliver will work forever."

"I know," Kim said as a nurse came over and removed a tiny panel.

"You can touch him," Melody said as Kim reached out and he grabbed her finger and held tight to it. She began to cry as Tommy squatted down next to her and looked up at her.

"I can't believe that he made it," Kim said as Tommy smiled up at her and she looked down at him. "You were a pre-me too..."

"Yeah, I was, Kim," Tommy said, as he looked at her, wondering what logic was behind all of this. He really couldn't see any, but he was not trying very hard to find any at the moment.

"Thomas Christopher Oliver, Junior?" Kim asked as Tommy looked over at her. "He's got your will to survive already Tommy, he should be named after you."

"But what will we call him?" Tommy asked as Kim just looked over at him. She thought that would be obvious to him, but it wasn't right now.

"Chris," Kim said simply, as she loosened her finger from his hand and stroked back his hair. He was weak, but he was still fighting to breathe on his own and he had managed to surprise all the doctors with his lungs. They hadn't thought that things would turn out good, but for right now everything was all right. They were a family and family was all that mattered to them.


	8. Shifting of Responsibilities

"That had nothing to do with you," Fred said as Madeline just shook her head.

"It had everything to do with us. Don't you see how much they had to sacrifice? And let me tell you, that's not even the beginning of it all," Madeline said as Fred looked over at her. "You know that he trained us. What do you think that meant him having to do? What do you think that meant him having to give up for us?"

"I never thought that a ranger…" Fred said as Madeline could only shake her head as Maddox placed his arm around her and pulled her into a comforting hug.

"I guess that you have a lot to learn," Maddox said as Sam nodded. He might still have some problems with his fellow rangers, but he could always agree with them when they were right about something.

-------------

"You all held up pretty good for your first time out," Billy commented as he had merely handed them some bruise reducer. His first day as a ranger had been much worse, but he didn't think that they would believe him right now. They were still suffering from the actions that they had had to take and Tommy's reaction to it all, which was almost worse. It was then that his communicator went off and he glanced down at it, wondering why they were communicating with him.

"Are you alone?" Trini's voice said as he looked back over his shoulder and just shook his head. He knew that if Trini was starting out by saying that, then there were things that he would not want hear about to come out of her mouth.

"How alone do I need to be?" Billy asked as he took a step away from the young rangers. He knew that there was a good chance that he just needed to get away from everyone, so that she could communicate freely, but he hoped that it would not come to that.

"I guess if the rangers are there you're fine. They'll find out about it anyway," Trini said as he let out a sigh.

"How are they?" Billy asked as Trini just shook her head.

"She had the baby and he's doing okay. I just don't know if that will last very long," Trini said as Billy nodded. Both of them had enough on their minds, they needed for their child to be as healthy as possible considering the circumstances. If he was, for the most part, healthy, then they could manage to try to focus on other things. Everyone knew that was far too much to ask out of them but they could not help it. The government was not going to be sympathetic to them, considering what they wanted them to accomplish.

"Do you want me to send them home?" Billy asked as Trini looked over at Jason and he shook his head no. He knew that Tommy would want them to finish what they had planned, especially considering everything else that had happened today. The new rangers needed to know everything that they had stored up for them. They were not going to get the luxury of a long explanation, they were going to have to pile it all into one day and hope that they would be able to absorb it all.

"No, Jason and Rocky are going to be there in a little while. I'm going to stay at the hospital until they'll let me go back and see Kim, then I'll be heading over there too," Trini said as Billy looked at them and they all nodded that they understood that they were going no where. They honestly wanted to go to the hospital, but they felt that that was not their place, yet. They had not worked with these rangers long enough to go and try to comfort them right now. "By the way, have you figured out how in the hell he got in?"

"Yeah, but I better not tell you that right now," Billy said as Trini nodded in understanding, although she truly didn't think that that was an excuse for Billy to not tell them what was going on.

"Are they okay here?" Trini asked as Jason looked over at her. He hadn't even thought about their safety. He had assumed that they would be perfectly fine in a hospital, but hadn't they assumed that their homes were safe as well? And look at what had happened to them in their own home, they couldn't feel safe anywhere now.

"They should be. I see no reason for him to do anything further because he does not wish to face Tommy's wrath. He's already found out that Tommy has some powers that did not completely leave him," Billy said, simply, as Trini nodded that that was some small comfort. If Halindon would be threatened by anyone Tommy would surely be that person, but they all knew that Tommy did not need to lose control. That could be a very dangerous thing, to not only him, but to all of the rangers, past and present.

"Well, I'm sending Jason, so have fun," Trini said as Jason teleported out and landed amongst the rangers.

"Rocky should be here in a little while. Tommy told him to stop by to help with everything, before all this mess happened," Jason said as he walked over to the console and began scrolling through their files. He knew Tommy had something in there for them to use, he just had to dig it up. They all knew that Tommy didn't have the best organizational skills in the world, but he did happen to be the one person that could gather all this ranger information into one place. "Can you help find the video? I know he moved everything here when they moved from Reefside but I don't have a clue what his filing system is."

"Okay, I was hoping to get home and tell Kat what is going on. She'd want to go to the hospital," Billy said as Jason merely looked over at him and he began looking through all of the materials that Tommy had stored there.

"Trini is busy calling everyone, so she'll know soon enough, Billy," Jason said as Billy nodded. He knew Kat was going to be devastated, they all were, but the only thing that could keep all of them going was that they both were alive and doing all right for the moment.

"Who's Kat?" Sam asked out of curiosity as Jason looked at the ground and Billy smiled as the video was pulled up and he paused it. He had been waiting for that to come up, so that he could see just how much Tommy and Kim had dared to explain this morning.

"She's my wife and she was the second pink ranger," Billy said as they all looked over at him. "I take it that they told you that she almost killed Kim."

"Yeah," Madeline said as Billy just shook his head.

"Well, they did leave out my trying to kill Tommy and you know Kim's fiascos," Jason said as they gaped at him. They couldn't believe that the two of them had left out some of the truth. That just couldn't be possible that all of this had happened to them. "Most of us have been evil one time or another, we can't really help it. It comes with the territory of the job."

"You know, I'm starting to think I was crazy to agree to this," Maddox said as Madeline looked up at him and he stopped his muttering. She didn't want to hear anything from them in the complaint department. Kim and Tommy were the only ones to have that right and that was because of the hell that they had been through recently.

"Jason! How are you?" Rocky asked as he gave him a hug and saw the worried expression in his eyes. "What did I miss?"

"Kim had the baby," Jason said, as Rocky stopped halfway giving Billy a hug. He had not expected to hear that sort of thing. He had thought that there might have been an attack and that Tommy had been involved, but he had never thought this would be something that they would have to deal with.

"What happened?" Rocky asked as Jason sat down and the others noticed the sudden shift in their moods. They did not seem remotely pleased and were all business from their appearance. They had thought that the bond between rangers was strong, but they could see that it was stronger than they originally imagined it being, but it was almost expected when these were the people that you could live or die with.

"Halindon attacked at their home and Tommy managed to keep her from being injured anymore than the initial blast, but…" Jason trailed off as Rocky's eyes flamed with revenge and malice.

"Do we have instructions?" Rocky asked, as Tommy was the head honcho here and he didn't want to do anything against him although he did think that hunting the creature down would be at the top of Tommy's list.

"Kick his fucking ass," Jason said as the rangers looked at them in surprise. They had never seen a ranger's fury before and they did not like the look of it.

"Is that directly from his mouth?" Rocky asked, as Jason shook his head no.

"That's from Trini, I don't want to imagine what Tommy would say if he had the chance to tell us what needs to be done," Jason said as Madeline let out a louder than normal cough and brought them back to reality.

"As much as we want to hear the extent of your expletive vocabulary, I think we need to be briefed on the extent of the problem ahead of us," Madeline said as Jason looked over at Rocky, who merely shrugged.

"I need to call Ish, I don't want her to hear it from anyone else," Rocky said as Jason nodded. He understood that the second yellow ranger was not going to be happy and was probably going to go to the hospital before Rocky even finished saying what had happened.

"What are we doing then?" Maddox asked, as he could not help but agree with Madeline. This was something that had to be done as quickly as possible.

"We are going to spar until BethAnn and Garrett get here. I'm sure that the message Trini left on their communicators will be enough to startle them into scrambling here," Jason said as Madeline nodded and tried to loosen her body back up. "No, you guys aren't sparring, me and Rocky are. I don't think you understand the extent of how upset we are. You'll get hurt."

"No we wouldn't. Come on, I've trained with Tommy," Madeline said as Jason just shook his head that it was not so. He wouldn't dare to spar with Tommy until he had gotten out some of his frustrations elsewhere. They had never seen Tommy when he was in his full fury and that was something that none of his friends even wanted to face.

"What they are trying to say is that their emotions make it only safe to take on someone with the same emotions. All of you may know Kimberly, but you are nowhere near as close to her as the rest of us," Billy said as Madeline just threw up her arms in frustration. "You don't want them to, trust me."

"What did Aisha say?" Jason asked as Rocky walked back over to them, just shaking his head.

"Ish handed the phone over to Tommy," Rocky said as Jason and Billy's eyes widened. They had not expected for that to happen. "We're going to have to rescue him from the hospital. He said that the baby will have to stay in the hospital for at least a month, but Kim will be released tomorrow. We're going to have to work out a schedule with him, someone has to be here and cover the dojo and be at the hospital. Tommy can't do all of it and he won't make Kim take on anything except sitting at the hospital until she wants to go somewhere else."

"Yeah, I'll call him tonight. I'm sure he'll be home taking care of something," Jason said as Billy couldn't help but laugh.

"What did he break this time?" Billy asked as Rocky laughed.

"I think it was only a window," Rocky said as Jason nodded and Billy looked over at the rangers who were laughing as well.

"What the hell…" BethAnn said as she landed in the Command Center and looked around. She had not expected this at all.

"I feel sick," Garrett said as he landed and looked around. "How'd I get here?"

"No time to explain," Jason said as he took a step away from Rocky and they stopped their sparring. "Let's get down to business."

--------------

"You're leaving off there?" Fred asked as Madeline nodded.

"Well, I've got to gather my thoughts for everything that comes after that. We've got Kim and Tommy's problems and our meeting. You've got a lot that you need to know about and that's a lot for you to think about. We have to say it the right way," Madeline said as Maddox and the others nodded. They couldn't help but want to put it in. It was something that made their team into what they were.


	9. Figuring It Out

"Day two interview of the Power Rangers," Fred said as the tape began and Madeline just looked at him. It was the first time that he felt tempted to describe them to let everyone who heard this be able to look out into the crowd and find the rangers, as he was sure they would be invited to the long listening of the ranger investigation in case anything was changed from their original interview. He, at the very least, knew that some people would expect changes and discrepancies in their story. He just hope that would not really happen.

He would have never picked any of them as rangers. Madeline looked like a college student and she was not someone to imagine even in the military. Her brown hair reached her shoulders and her eyes always shown with excitement. She was on the short side and was not the skinniest in the world, but you could tell she was athletic and bright, which was all that mattered here.

Maddox was definitely in shape, but didn't look strict or hardened by the life that they had lived. There were some in the group that did, but that person was still in the military. His black hair was definitely longer than anyone would allow it to be in the military, but it suited him well. Anyone could see how protective he was of Madeline, but they couldn't be sure if that was just because they had been rangers or because there was more to their story.

Sam, however, was a different story. He was stiff and his clothing was ironed to perfection. His hair could have been a multitude of colors, but it was sandy blond in all reality. His eyes were cold and it did not take a genius to figure out that he was not extremely well accepted by the others. However, they did stand him and that said something about their upbringing.

BethAnn's current hair color was red, although none of them were sure what the natural color was. She never kept it the same for too long. She was of a small build and had ferocity in her eyes that no one seemed to want to meet head on if they could possibly help it.

Garrett was different from the other guys. He was slight of build and all his muscle was toned, but not very defined. He had long blonde hair and a very gentle expression, unlike all the others. He seemed to be the most at ease with what was happening, although none of them were extremely comfortable with it.

"Okay, now, let's go with Tommy and Kim's day, then we'll go to our day with Jason and Rocky," Madeline said as Maddox smiled over at her. Their night had been rough last night, but they had gotten everything figured out and how it was to be best handled.

------------

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked as Kim rubbed her chest against him and groaned. She had not been this sore in a very long time and had hoped that she would never be this way again after her last tour of duty as a ranger. She had never planned on having a C-section though and that was definitely worse than most things she had ever experienced.

"Pass me the breast pump," Kim said as Tommy gave her a sympathetic look and he reached over for the pump.

"Can I help you?" Tommy asked as she sat up slowly and just shook her head no. She was in too much pain for him to be able to help right now. Her body was reluctant to admit that it was no longer pregnant, except for the milk that was flowing into her breasts and causing another degree of discomfort.

"I don't want to leave him alone, Tommy," Kim whispered as he sat up behind her and gently caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. He could feel her tears and knew well enough where it stemmed from. He was fighting with the same emotions and many more that Kim had not even reached yet. He had had time to think about some things and those things left him in a worried state that he had not been in for years. It was one thing when something came after them as rangers, but it was a completely different matter when they came after them just because they were a convenient target.

"They'll let you stay with him as long as you need to Kim," Tommy said as Kim looked over at him. He knew that they'd make her go home at night and she didn't want to do that. It had taken everything to get her to sleep last night and she was exhausted then. He knew when she gained her strength back, it would be incredibly hard to convince her that she couldn't stay with her child.

"They kicked me out last night Tommy, so I doubt that I'll really get to stay as long as I want when I'm up to it," Kim said as Tommy gave her a sympathetic look. He could see the pain, but he could still rejoice in the fact that their child was surviving with only minimal help. That was something that he had to be happy for, considering how bad things could be right now. "Do you have to go today?"

"No, Jason and Rocky are taking care of everything until you come home and we've gotten things settled down with Chris," Tommy said as Kim nodded. That, however, did not comfort her. She knew this would mean more nights alone while he tried to catch up with what he missed. It was an endless cycle, but she did not see the end of it any time soon. They had been brought in to prepare a team and there was a lot riding on Tommy's performance. If he didn't do this just right, they were going to face hell later on.

"And after that?" Kim asked looking back at him. She knew exactly what the answer would be, but she did not want to hear that from him right now. She was not sure if she would be able to deal with it.

"I don't know Kim. It all depends on what has to be done. You know I don't like having to choose," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head, but didn't say anything for the moment.

"But you have always had to Tommy, one way or another. I just wish that they'd never found us, never asked you to do this because our baby wouldn't be in the NICU, he'd still be right here," Kim said, pointing to her flattened stomach as Tommy just stared at her. He had not expected this sort of reaction, but the blame was starting to shift and he had to expect it some. It was really no one's fault, but Kim had to find someone to blame with all the pain that she was feeling and he was the only person anywhere near him.

"Kim, come here," Tommy said as he pulled her back and she just shook against him. She wanted to hit him, get out all of her frustrations, but she was not mad at him. She was mad at herself more than anyone else.

"Tommy, I'm sorry. I…I'm just upset. It wasn't…you…couldn't have…why would he do that?" Kim yelled as he turned her around and he allowed her to beat the living crap out of him. He knew that she needed to get her emotions out in the open and he was the best person to beat up on. He would not fight back and he knew that if she did not release this, then things were going to get much worse.

"I wish I knew," Tommy said as she sobbed against him. There were so many things he wanted to do right now, but he knew that he had to trust his teammates to take care of it. He knew that he couldn't right now. His child and his wife needed him much more than the rangers that he was training.

"Dr. Oliver," Dr. Sealnon said as he entered the room and Tommy looked up from Kim for a moment. "May I speak with you? Alone?"

"Go Tommy, I'll be fine," Kim said as she released him and he slowly pulled away from her. He was concerned about what was going on here. He had not expected to have to talk to Dr. Sealnon again until they left the hospital. "Go before I change my mind, Tommy."

"Let's make this quick," Tommy said as Dr. Sealnon nodded in agreement. He certainly did not want to drag this conversation out anymore than he could help. He knew that Kim needed Tommy more than anyone else right now, but he had to get some things straightened out before he could sleep easily at night.

"I didn't ask what happened yesterday, but I need to know Tommy. The reason she was set up with me was because of my past jobs. So tell me, what attacked her and will it come after your son here," Dr. Sealnon demanded as they walked to his office.

"Halindon," Tommy said as Dr. Sealnon nodded, he had expected to hear those words come out of Tommy's mouth from the moment that he brought her in. "I can't say what else he'll do, but if he is stupid enough to even attempt to take my son away. I'll kill him myself."

"But you're not supposed to fight," Dr. Sealnon said with a smile as Tommy just shook his head. They both knew that Tommy would rather be on the ranger team himself, but the government had insisted that he just sit back and observe, be their mentor. What good was that going to do now that he knew he would not be able to sit at the command center for more than fifteen minutes without being worried that something had happened to his son or his wife?

"He crossed the line when he hit my wife. Now it is time for me to kill his ass and I would have done more if the rangers hadn't been there to stop me," Tommy said as Dr. Sealnon nodded. He had never imagined this man sitting in the back seat and just taking what came to him.

"That's what I felt, now let me warn you. Kim cannot fight for the next six weeks, at a minimum. I do not want her to come in here with an extremely pulled muscle because she's moved too quickly back into training or worse, having to fight. Take her out of the equation as soon as possible, otherwise I will," Dr. Sealnon said as Tommy nodded. He hadn't been planning to let her do anything. Now he surely would not let her do absolutely anything. He couldn't risk it and he would just have to get the point across to Kim, quickly. "You're sure that you'll be able to handle her."

"She's my wife, I should be able to get the point across to her," Tommy said as Dr. Sealnon nodded. He knew that Tommy was probably the only person that would be able to get anything across to Kimberly, as even he had learned about her famous stubbornness in the last few months.

"Okay, just go back to her," Dr. Sealnon said as Tommy nodded and he turned to go out of the room. He was sure that he had stayed longer than he needed to, as Kim still too unstable to truly be left alone.

"Kim…" Tommy said as he opened the door and looked in on her. He was not sure if he should tell her everything right away or if he should wait for a little while, but he didn't have a chance to decide that as he was greeted by the nurse.

"She has already walked down to the NICU," Abigail said as Tommy looked at her and just shook his head.

"You let her go by herself?" Tommy asked as Abigail shook her head no and Tommy gave her a concerned look.

"One of your friends came by and she went with them," Abigail said as Tommy shook his head. Their friends would have called before they just showed up, especially considering how everything had happened yesterday.

"No…" Tommy muttered as he released the door and ran towards the NICU afraid that it was an imposter and that he was going to have to go rescue his wife in only a matter of minutes.

"Tommy, what's wrong?" Kim asked as he barged into the NICU and saw Kim sitting there with Kat, who was giving Tommy a concerned look.

"I just…I just thought that…don't worry about it you're safe," Tommy said as he squatted down and wrapped both of his arms around her as he let out a long sigh. He had so much on him right now and he just wanted for things to be straightened out quickly.

"How've you been Tommy?" Kat asked as he looked up at her and he just shook his head. Hadn't his episode just proved how he was doing with all of this stuff? He was more paranoid than he had been in years and there was nothing that he could do about it. He was on the ropes and he knew that he could not deal with the idea of Kim or Chris being taken away from him right now and he would do everything to insure that that did not happen.

"I've been better Kat, but we'll make it," Tommy said as Kim continued playing with Chris's small hand as he gripped onto her finger as tight as he could and Tommy could tell that she was fighting her tears. "You okay, sweetie?"

"You know that I'm just…I don't want to be taken away from him so soon," Kim whispered as Kat took a step away and Tommy then looked up at her.

"Did you need something Kat?" Tommy asked as Kat smiled over at them. She didn't want to break them from their moment because they really needed each other. She didn't know what she would do if her ranger life ever caused something to happen to her while she was pregnant. She had some worries, but it was not about whether or not a monster would come after her. She knew that if that had been the case, she would have begged Billy to take her to Aquitar for the nine months to insure her safety. The two of them were built of stronger stuff than what most people thought.

"Actually they sent me here to see if you needed something. I've got today off work and Rocky and Jason are trying to figure out what needs to be done over the next few weeks," Kat said as Tommy looked over at Kim, begging her to forgive him for what he was about to do and she merely nodded.

"Do you have a notepad?" Tommy asked as Kat nodded and handed him a notebook, so that he could jot down what Jason and Rocky needed to accomplish in his absence.

"He looks good," Kat said as she sat down next to Kimberly and Kim looked over at her. They had removed some of the tubes and were considering letting him out of the incubator so that Kim could hold him for the first time, but they still said that would be several days off.

"Thanks," Kim whispered as she continued to rub his hand and Katherine just put her arm around Kim.

"There is nothing you could have done Kim," Katherine said as Kim looked over at her and nodded. She knew that it was not her fault, but it was still hard to not blame herself when her son was in an incubator and hooked up to more machines than she ever wanted to see her child hooked up to.

"It still doesn't make me feel any better," Kim said as Katherine nodded. She knew that Kim was not going to be able to recover from this until she had her baby in her arms and was able to take him home.

"I think that this is all I have for them," Tommy said as he passed the pad of paper over to Katherine and Kim looked at him with wide eyes. She could not believe that he had scribbled out a full page of things that needed to be done in under five minutes, but it was obvious that he had been planning this for awhile.

"I'll take it to them on my way to get some groceries. Call me if you need anything," Kat said as she turned to leave them and saw the look in their eyes. "I mean it, call me if you need something."

"We will, Kat," Kim said as Tommy nodded his head in agreement as they watched her leave and Tommy then looked back over at Kimberly.

"He looks better this morning, Kim," Tommy whispered as Kim nodded her head yes, but the fact was she still knew he was not out of the woods yet. They had been lucky so far, but they did not know how much longer they would be this lucky.

"Tommy, I just want him to come home with me today. I don't want to leave him, what if…what if Halindon comes after him?" Kim asked, whispering the last part as Tommy gave her a sympathetic look and he held her close.

"If he does that, he won't have to worry about the rangers killing him. I'll do it myself," Tommy threatened as Kim looked over at him and saw the earnest hate in his eyes.

"Tommy, it's not your job anymore and I can't stand the thought of losing you because you go and do something stupid," Kim said as Tommy just looked over at her, completely surprised that she was objecting to this at all. He had thought that she would want to strangle the man with her own bare hands if he so much as laid a hand on Chris.

"Kimberly, how many times have I already almost died for you?" Tommy whispered to her as she looked down at him, completely confused as to where he was going with this. "I would do the same for my child and I know that you would do the same thing as well, so don't tell me that I can't do that if he tries to take our child. You'll be doing the same thing, Kim."

"Tommy, please, I can't stand the thought of losing both of you at the same time," Kim said as he saw the concern in her eyes and he nodded to keep her from saying anything else about it.

"Come here," Tommy whispered as he pulled her into his arms and she closed her eyes as her face filled with pain. "I'm so proud of you."

"What do you have to be proud of?" Kim asked him in return as he gave her a very weak smile and she broke down in tears.

"Because you've been so strong and I don't know how you've done it. I haven't been here as much as I should. I'm going to try to help you Kim, I'm going to try to do less," Tommy said as she looked at him and he cradled her in his arms and she just sat there silently.

"I know you have to do this Tommy," Kim muttered as he looked down at her and realized that she was forcing herself to say that to him. She didn't really believe it, but she knew that he needed some reassurances right now.

"I'll talk to them soon, don't worry about it Kim," Tommy said as she looked over at him. She was not asking that of him, this job was important, they both knew that. That was why they had sacrificed so much to help this team get started, he couldn't just give up on it now.

"Tommy, if you cut back what you're doing the rangers will have no help," Kim said as he looked into her eyes, unbelieving.

"And if I don't what else will I lose?" Tommy asked as Kim greeted his gaze with hesitance. She knew that he was going to see what she really wanted when he looked at her and she didn't want him to see it. "They will learn from Jason and Rocky until we can go back. I'm staying with you as long as you need me."

"Tommy, it's not your choice, they'll want you back tomorrow," Kim said as Tommy merely shook his head. He knew what they would want but he also knew that he could not neglect his family. He did not like the idea of his child barely knowing who he was. "What are you going to do? Tell them to take a flying leap from the top of the Megazord?"

"Sounds like a good idea," Tommy muttered as his cell phone went off and he looked down at it and then walked out of the room. "Hello…"

"Tommy, sorry to do this but the rangers won't be back until this afternoon. I hate to ask this but can I come by and go over some stuff with you?" Jason asked as Tommy looked down at his watch. Kat had only left a few minutes ago.

"You teleported Kat there?" Tommy asked, accusingly, as Jason cringed on the other end. He did not want to upset Tommy anymore than he already was, they all knew that to could be dangerous.

"Billy did, but just calm down for a moment. Billy is agreeing with that. Look we don't want to keep you for too long, but I have questions about this long list that you scribbled out," Jason said as Tommy nodded. He had expected that they would have some questions about it when they read through it and realized what he was asking of them.

"Come on, I'll just break it to her," Tommy said as he turned around and went to tell Kim.

"They need to talk to you," Kim said simply as Tommy merely nodded and she smiled. "They can come in and sit down."

"I don't want to bother you," Tommy said as Kim looked over at the door and then Tommy looked back.

"Tommy, I'll find out anyway I might as well find out now. It's not like much worse can happen to me," Kim said as he managed to nod and then signaled for Jason to come in.

"I didn't want to talk with you Kim," Jason said as she looked up at him.

"He'll tell me anyway Jason, I might as well hear it now," Kim said, calmly, as Tommy looked over at Jason who just shook his head. If Tommy was not fighting it, then neither would he, he didn't see the use spending his energy on a fight that he would not win.

"Okay, the kids took it pretty good yesterday, but I still think Madeline might kill Sam if we ever give her the chance," Jason said as Kim laughed. "I take it you don't blame her."

"Now I can go after him, the bastard," Kim said as Tommy just shook his head. He still had to have a long talk with her about her limits.

"I think we can do everything asked, but we need to work out a schedule for the dojo. They'll accept you being gone for a little while, but after awhile you'll lose business. Rocky and I can rotate days for the next couple of weeks, but then we'll have to go back to work," Jason said as Tommy nodded his head. He had never wanted to ask all of this from his friends. The fact was, he now didn't have a choice. He had to have help because they had to keep everything a float.

"What about the rangers?" Kim whispered, leaning her head in and Jason and Tommy exchanged a glance.

"Andros," Jason said, simply, as Kim nodded. She had thought it might come to that. "He knows about everything and he wants to have a big group pow wow as soon as we can. He understands it might still be a couple of weeks, but he has some things to talk about."

"Yeah, just like I have some things we're going to have to figure out," Tommy said, pointedly, as Jason nodded while Kim gave him a wary look.

"We're going to have to stay at the Command Center, aren't we?" Kim said, tightly, as Tommy nodded his head yes and she sighed. She did not want to do that. She wanted her child to have a normal room and crib, not a place with high security and screeching alarm systems. "Then why the hell did we even buy a house?"

"Because I never thought it would get this bad. I thought we'd be safe, because we're not in uniform anymore," Tommy said as a nurse passed them by and they looked back at her for a brief moment.

"I don't want the two of you to fight over this, but you do have to do something Kim, otherwise it's not going to be pretty," Jason said as Kim nodded while Jason looked at his paper. "Okay, second thing I have is how much time do we need to bring Billy in for. I know if we bring him in too often then he becomes a PANEL member and he didn't want that."

"I'm going to have to see exactly what we need his help with before I can say when we'll have to bring him in. We may have to ask him to become a member of the PANEL," Tommy said as Kim began to object. "Kim don't. I don't want to break my promise to him, but we've got to do what we have to do to make this work."

"It's not right to do that Tommy. He has a kid on the way and he has to keep his job and…" Kim said as Tommy held up his hand. He didn't need a lecture. He already knew about all of that and he was sure he would catch hell from Kat if he even suggested that Billy become a full-time member, but there were things that he couldn't do now and that meant that more people had to chip in and take up the slack.

"I know Kim, but these are the facts. Hell, if we hadn't gotten pregnant we would have done a lot more without any of them helping us," Tommy said as Kim's eyes flashed pink and both Jason and Tommy scooted away, knowing what was coming. They all had a small, or in Kim and Tommy's case a large, connection to their old powers and every once in awhile they reared up in the least expected situations.

"Thomas Christopher Oliver don't you dare say that to me!" Kim yelled as Dr. Sealnon peeped in to see her standing above Tommy, as he cowered away.

"Mrs. Oliver, sit down," Dr. Sealnon said, rather sternly, as she glared at him and then stomped out of the room as Tommy let out a long sigh. He knew he was in the dog house and doubted that he would ever be able to get out of it. "You didn't do a good job of convincing her not to do anything."

"I haven't been able to talk to her about that," Tommy said as Dr. Sealnon nodded. He knew the man had more on his shoulders than he should, but they still had to make sure Kim didn't over stress her body that was the last thing that he needed right now.

"And you were a dumb ass just a moment ago," Jason pointed out as Tommy glared at him. "Tommy your wife just had your child and you're coming across as a son of a bitch right now."

"I've had way too much on my mind lately," Tommy said with frustration as Kim walked back in and sat down next to Tommy.

"Finish it Tommy," Kim said as Jason looked over and saw that she was still furious, but there was nothing that she could do about it.

"Okay guys, what I also need is for you to go over this information sometime. I've put together everything that we did so you can see it. I've got to get back to work, but call me when all of this mess is over," Jason said as he handed Tommy a stack of papers and he just shook his head as he filed through it before looking over at Kim.

"This is going to take the rest of the day," Tommy said as Kim just looked at him.

"Call the person that is over you because I can't do this Tommy, I need you here for me," Kim said as he looked at her and nodded. He had already made a couple of stupid decisions today. He did not want to make anymore today if he could help it.

"I'm sorry, Kim," Tommy said as he grabbed his phone and walked from the room.

"It's going to be a long couple of weeks sweetie," Kim whispered as she put her hand back into the incubator. She knew that Tommy had so much to do and she knew he didn't have a choice. She just hoped that everything would be all right.

-----------------

"That is all you have?" Fred asked as Madeline nodded. He wanted to hear more of the story, but he didn't think it wise to press them.

"Well, we're supposed to talk about our ranger work, not Kim and Tommy's problems," Maddox said as Madeline nodded. There was nothing else that she could do. They had much more ranger related stuff to deal with so it was time to go to their meeting, but that would be well after lunch.


	10. Explanations

"Now we need to cover your day. There is much more that needs to be told and not a lot of time," Fred said as Madeline nodded as she pulled out a notebook. She had visited Jason before they had come out here and had gotten his notes from the beginning. He had done it so Tommy would know what had happened when he got back and now she was grateful for it, since it gave her a clear time line.

"All right, let's get this shit going," Sam said as Madeline glared over at him and he scooted away. He felt that she might just kick his ass for old time's sake.

--------------

"All right kids, here is Tommy's little plan for everything you need to learn before any major battles occur," Jason said as he placed a thick notebook on the table and they just stared at it, thinking that there could not possibly be that much to learn before they were in a major battle. The rangers just couldn't have that much experience in major battles. They didn't even think that there were that many major battles in ranger history, but they honestly had no clue as to what had truly occurred during their years of service. The government had done a very good job of hiding everything that they thought the public did not need to know about the rangers and most of their major battles had been placed in that category. No one needed to know that the Power Rangers had saved this earth more times than they could even count. "I'm going to try to get through most of it for you because it's just little things that you need to know and if Tommy hadn't been on so many teams we wouldn't have even thought of half of it until it was too late. So, just bear with me and I'll try to make this short and sweet."

"A Power Ranger manual? You've got to be kidding me," Sam said as BethAnn reached over and slapped him on the back of the head. She had been assigned to keep Sam in check, because they all feared that Madeline or Maddox might just take it too far and they did not want to see either of them pay in their other job.

"Don't be rude!" BethAnn said as Jason smiled as he opened it. He was beginning to think that between BethAnn and Madeline, Sam was going to be a tame man by the time he was done being a ranger. The female rangers always seemed to have a calming effect on the male rangers and they all appreciated that a good bit, especially considering who they were now working with.

"It's not like a rules of engagement book. We don't have that. What it is, is some things that you need to know before all hell breaks loose, because the hell that you are used to is not the hell that we experienced while we were rangers. It's a hell that no one else can even think that they've experienced," Jason said as Rocky looked over at him. Jason was trying to skirt around the other things that had happened today, but he realized that there was no way that the rangers would be able to concentrate until they knew some simple facts.

"First of all, any questions as to why that happened today?" Rocky asked as Madeline nodded. She had to admit to being curious about the entire situation. "Go ahead."

"Don't you have any protection on your houses?" Madeline asked as Rocky shook his head no and Madeline's mouth dropped open. She had thought that they would have gotten some sort of protection after everything that had happened to them in the past. There had to be some payoff for them always risking their lives, they shouldn't have to live in fear when they were done being rangers.

"Kim and Tommy don't have that capability, none of us do, but there are things you have to get used to with this life and knowing that someone might drop into your home is just one of those facts. It's happened more times than we would like to count and most of the times we get away without any sort of injury," Rocky said as they just stared. They had not known this was ahead, they had never expected to hear something like this come out of their mouths as the truth about how rangers lived after they were retired.

"You have to get used to knowing your life could end at any moment?" Madeline asked as Rocky barely nodded as Billy walked back in and they looked over at him. He had been communicating with some unknown source for the last couple of hours, but they were sure that he had gotten them some help, somehow.

"There is not much for me to do unless you need some help," Billy said as Jason and Rocky acknowledged his statement. They wanted to try to keep him out of this if they could; they knew that he didn't want to risk becoming a permanent member of the PANEL.

"Go home, we'll call you if we need you," Jason said as Billy gave them a grateful smile and walked towards the door. Kat was probably having a nervous breakdown by now, considering what had just happened and he hoped that he would be able to comfort her some, although he knew it was futile to even try.

"How is he doing?" Madeline asked, as they had all heard that Kim and Tommy had a boy, but they had not heard much more.

"We don't know. Tommy hasn't called us yet; when he does we'll know more about what's going on. I don't expect him to talk to you for another few days. He's got too much to think about right now that doesn't include the ranger world," Jason said as Madeline nodded and then leaned back in her chair. She had asked all the questions that she was pretty sure would be answered, so there was nothing else that she could do.

"Okay, under Tommy's orders, you have to watch this in its entirety and if any of you fall asleep, you have to watch it again," Rocky said as he began the film and they all seemed to fall into a trance like state. They knew that Tommy had expected it to happen but maybe not that quickly. It was something that everyone was not a Power Ranger found themselves staring at as if they were idiots while the rangers stood back and tried not to hurl. They hated reliving those memories, when so many of them had not had happy endings.

"If you are seeing this I am either dead, captured, or working on another damn ranger team. This is the history of the Power Rangers from the beginning until now. Now, sit back and enjoy," Tommy said as Jason and Rocky both shook their heads.

"Enjoy what?" Jason murmured as the momentous day that they were brought into this life what they would never be able to escape showed on the screen.

"Tommy knows that it's interesting for others. I'm surprised that he went back in and added so much of this stuff. I wouldn't think that he would even remember most of it," Rocky said with a smile as Jason nodded. Tommy's forgetfulness was still legendary among the rangers, even if not much else about the longest serving ranger remained a legend to those that knew him.

"Yeah now he's going to have to get a tattoo to remind himself of his son's birthday," Jason said as Rocky laughed. They had all joked that Tommy would do that for their anniversary, but the only tattoo that he had was the falcon he got on his eighteenth birthday, of course he had sworn off tattoos after that experience. Tommy had a tolerance for pain, but it was not nearly as high as to have another tattoo placed on his body.

"Hey, we're trying to watch this," Sam said as Jason and Rocky turned their stares towards him and he clamped his mouth shut. They were good to their word that they would do what Tommy asked and had so far. He was sure that if he gave them a hard time, then they would take Tommy's other advice too literally.

"Are you sure that they're doing all right?" Rocky asked as he wanted to call Aisha and find out, but didn't think it wise. He knew that if he became distracted that everything would just turn out worse for them.

"Trini just said that he was in the NICU, but he seems to be okay. Other than that I don't know and I doubt we'll get an answer out of Tommy if we call," Jason said as Rocky nodded as the mission to the moon came up and Jason struggled not to walk out. He had paid hell for that mission when he got home. If they had not had to rescue Kim, Trini would have ripped him a new one without even thinking. She, however, was nice enough to look after Kim, and then come after him with hundreds of questions and a few bitter comments.

"He didn't put in her rescue," Rocky muttered as Jason nodded. He had suspected that, as even the Dino Rangers didn't know about the rescue that had occurred, hell he was not even sure they knew about the letter. Tommy tended to keep that part of their relationship a secret, considering everything that they had been through in the past. He didn't like bringing that part of their relationship up in the here and now. It was just better that they didn't know anything about it if they could help it.

"He didn't want to have to explain it all again," Jason said as Rocky fixed him with a questioning gaze. Why had he decided against letting them know that now that they were going to see Kim become evil?

"I guess we're going to have to do some explaining to all of them," Rocky said as they turned towards them with questions in their eyes.

"What the hell have you gotten us into?" Madeline asked as Rocky laughed and then sat down. That was definitely a question that they had thought about a few times themselves and they didn't have an answer for her about that one. They didn't know what would happen to this ranger team, but they could almost guarantee that it would be different from what had happened to every ranger team before them.

"Nothing too bad, I promise that you'll all survive, just like the teams that came before you," Jason said as Rocky nodded and they all seemed to collapse right where they were.

"You know that movie should be shown at the beginning of basic training, I promise no one would complain then," Maddox said as Madeline nodded. She certainly knew that she couldn't any more.

"That's not the purpose, the purpose is for you to know what you've come from and where you might go. We've all been down this road more times than we want to count, but we're back again. You'll do it too when your time comes," Jason said as Madeline nodded. She knew that they would soon be in their shoes; they just didn't want all the responsibility that they had.

"Our time won't come," Sam said as Madeline looked over at him and noticed the determined looked had come back.

"Yeah, just like Kim and Tommy won't have more kids," Jason said, sarcastically, and they looked at him with wonder. They couldn't believe that he would joke around like that especially considering the circumstances. "A time comes for everyone here, so trust me when I say yours will as well and if you don't believe me, ask Tommy and Andros how many times they've been woken up in the middle of the night with a dumb ass question from a new ranger."

"Now, let's get down to business, we are teaching you all of the important skills you'll need. Basic communication," Rocky said opening the book and holding it up with a smile and they laughed. "Yeah, we've screwed up a couple of times and almost gotten caught, but we've always been able to figure a way out of it. You'll have to learn to do that same thing."

"Rule number one," Jason said as he held up the communicator. "Do not take this thing off, sleep, eat, have sex…do everything with this on. We have to be able to get in touch with you if something goes wrong."

"Does that include…" Garrett began as BethAnn slapped her hand over his mouth. She did not want to hear that at all.

"Leave it close by," Rocky said out of frustration as Jason nodded. He didn't want to think of what Kim or Trini would say to something like that, as they were likely to slap him and tell him off before he even realized that he had done something wrong. "Rule number two, do not yell out onto the frequency until someone responds, unless you are about to be killed."

"Then you call us," Jason said, seriously, as they looked at them. They didn't think that they were supposed to do anything, considering their reaction to Tommy staying and fighting earlier today. "You don't know enough yet and when they day comes that you do, we'll tell you."

"Rule number three, do not use the communicator as your personal taxi service," Rocky said as Jason fought not to laugh.

"Although we do that, you cannot. You have not earned that privilege," Jason said with a smile as Rocky watched them look at them in wonder.

"That's why he took so long to take her to the hospital," Madeline said as Jason nodded. Tommy knew that the reserves could dip at anytime and they would be left with no system. He, however, used it just as much as the others if something happened to Kim. They all knew what his priorities in life were and having the job that he now had was definitely messing those up.

"Tommy wants to insure that you have a good connection to it at all times because we've had trouble in the past when we've had to hop around too much," Jason said as Rocky nodded. They both cold remember being stranded and didn't like the feeling of it at all.

"Rule number four," Rocky said bringing the conversation back around to their job. "Absolutely no teleporting in front of anyone. If you get caught our cover is blown and we can be linked to far more people than you would ever imagine, so don't fuck it all up for us."

"Okay, that is the basics for communicator etiquette and teleporting, now it is time for you to morph," Jason said as he pulled out his own morpher with the disabled coin and showed it to them.

"Morph?" Madeline asked as Jason smiled, they obviously hadn't paid much attention to the suits that magically appeared on them.

"The funny little suits that we run around in, you have to morph to wear those," Rocky said with a smile as Jason laughed and Trini and Aisha walked in and they looked over at them. "Why are you here?"

"Kim and Tommy let us see Chris, but we had to leave. Kim's not taking it too well right now. Tommy still hasn't decided how to take all of this right now, but they're saying the next day will decide how long he'll have to stay," Trini said as Jason and Rocky nodded. It was much more than they could really take in right now.

"Chris?" Rocky asked as Trini and Aisha nodded. "We have a Junior on our hands?"

"Yeah, Tommy was a pre-me too and Kim couldn't resist and Tommy didn't stop her. There'd never be any doubt that he's Tommy's though," Aisha said as Jason and Rocky smiled.

"As if there was ever a doubt about that one," Madeline said as they nodded. She had learned enough by being around them that they could not cheat on each other, no matter what anyone else cared about or thought would happen with them. They had been there and done that. They would never do that again, that had been pure hell when they were apart for those years.

"Well, some would say Tommy is awfully friendly with the ladies," Rocky said with a laugh as Maddox and Sam exchanged a confused glance. They hadn't seen that side of Tommy and they were pretty sure that they never would by the way that they were talking.

"Tommy's charm is wasted on no woman. We're his friends, but there have been days when we've all wished that he was our husband," Aisha said as Rocky looked over at her, faking that his feelings had been hurt.

"Yeah and Kim has wanted me too," Rocky said as Jason, Trini, and Aisha laughed.

"I'd like to learn how to morph so that we no longer have to deal with these horrible bruises," Madeline said as she pulled up her shirt and Rocky grimaced as Maddox just stared.

"Down boy," Jason whispered in his ear and he jumped about a mile high as he had not noticed that Jason was right next to him.

"What's wrong?" Madeline asked as Maddox was now glaring at Jason while the older rangers laughed. They had seen that look before on another ranger, but they didn't think it polite to talk about him while he was not there. "Maddox…"

"Nothing is wrong," Maddox managed to say as he resumed breathing and looked back at her. He saw the laughter in her eyes but she was holding it back for some reason. He didn't know if it was to be polite or if it was just because she didn't want to laugh in his face right now.

"Good, I wouldn't want to distract you," Madeline said as Jason and Rocky both had to bite down on their tongues to keep from laughing. She was hitting the nail on the head, but she didn't even know that that was the truth of the matter. "Now, how are we supposed to do this?"

"Well, let me put in my power coin," Jason said as they stared at him and he could only shake his head. "It still has enough power to bring the suit, but not nearly enough for me to actually fight uninhibited and be protected."

"Now the important thing is the correct call for the correct coin," Rocky said as Jason failed in becoming the black ranger. "We're not sure if Tommy told you exactly what element you are yet."

"Element?" Sam asked as Madeline and Maddox looked around and then down at the floor.

"Yeah, I thought it'd only be them," Rocky said as Jason nodded and he went back over to the computer.

"When we found these powers they picked some of us as their match, so I know what a couple are without looking, but the rest I have no clue, we didn't really know the proper names for them, but Tommy found it over the past few months," Jason said as Madeline began carefully studying the others and Maddox watched her, trying to figure out what she was doing.

"I may be able to help you Jason," Madeline said as they looked over at her. They didn't know how she could do that. They weren't even certain that they guessed correctly.

"It can't hurt to let you try," Jason said as he continued to scroll through the files. There was so much on their computer and there was no way to just go to the one thing that they actually needed.

"I know that you are fire," Madeline said pausing in front of Maddox with a smile. "You are darkness."

"I know, you said that before," Sam said as Madeline just looked over at him as she shook her head. This was the reason that he was darkness. This was the reason that he couldn't do her job, otherwise he would have it. They all knew that.

"Now, the two of you," Madeline said as she stood in front of Garrett and BethAnn. She hadn't been around them enough to really figure out what they could be, although she was feeling certain sensations from each of them. "Can you step away from each other, you're confusing me."

"Sure," BethAnn said as she took a couple of steps away from Garrett and Madeline focused on him.

"Air, I'm pretty sure," Madeline said as Garrett nodded his head that he could definitely see that one being the truth.

"Don't tell me that I'm love, I think I might hurl," BethAnn said as Madeline laughed. She was sure that BethAnn was not love, but she was also not exactly sure what she was.

"No, you're not love, I don't think we have that element, but I can't say what I think you are. It's really difficult to discern with all the emotions I feel running through you," Madeline said as she looked back at Jason. There had been a clear reason that that power had wanted Kim to be its suitor, but she had had to hold it away so that she would not have to deal with it.

"What have you always felt with Kimberly?" Jason asked, out of curiosity, as Madeline looked over at him and shook her head. She had never been able to read Kimberly really well; she had always been guarded against all of them. "You can't read her, can you?"

"No, it's nearly impossible, but I don't know why she'd do that. She doesn't have any secrets in her past that she should be ashamed of," Madeline said as the veteran rangers exchanged glances and looked at the floor. "I said something wrong?"

"Yeah, she's got some things to be ashamed of, to say the least," Jason said as Madeline settled her thoughts on Kimberly and BethAnn. What did they have in common? What could possibly be the reason that they would share a power?

"But that doesn't play into this power, I can feel it. I can feel something resonating from her and I just can't put my finger on it…it just seems like raw…hope," Madeline said as Jason smiled. He was certainly glad to not have to dig through all of Tommy's informational files, as he had thought those were the powers, but not known it for sure.

"Hope?" BethAnn asked. "Why would I be hope?"

"Why would I be the human element?" Madeline asked as BethAnn just shrugged her shoulders, she definitely couldn't think of a reason for that. "I don't think we're supposed to know why we are the element that we are, we just have to deal with the fact that this is what we are stuck with."

"Well, now that you have figured that out, it is time for you to morph, which should be as simple as 'Human Element, morph', of course, you might want to act like you actually want to morph," Rocky said as the rangers looked around at each other, before Madeline tentatively took out her morpher and looked down at it. "You have to try it sometime; you might as well try it now."

"Human Element, morph!" Madeline yelled as she felt her body flying through the air and as she twisted the suit materialized and she felt the powers surge through her body and felt fully alive. She hadn't known that something was missing in her life and now it seemed that she wouldn't be able to live without being a ranger ever again. "Wow…"

"Well, I guess that you've learned what it feels like to morph," Jason said as Madeline pulled off her helmet and looked over at him, still trying to keep her breathing calm.

"I never thought that I would feel like this," Madeline said as she took her eyes off Jason and looked at Maddox, she could see straight through him now and what she saw him disturbed her just a little bit. She had never gotten this sort of feeling by the way that he acted, but now she felt something that scared her. "I guess I won't be able to block out what the human side of them wants, will I?"

"I don't think so," Jason said as Madeline nodded and she waited for the others to morph and one by one they did and they all seemed to have similar results, but Madeline had to continually force herself not to face Maddox. If she did she knew that she would not be able to deal with the emotions that were running through her. "Just imagine that Tommy feels like this, even without the powers helping him."

"How does he deal with it?" Madeline asked in shock as Jason just shook his head. He had never been brave enough to ask that question. Tommy had always had to deal with things like this, even when he didn't have a power that made everything more obvious.

"Tommy is a remarkable person, you'll find out more about him when you are able to be around him more," Jason said as the rangers were all beginning to control their powers. It was definitely something that they were having trouble with, considering that they were all feeling different things. "Okay, it's time to power down."

"Power down? Why should we do that so soon?" BethAnn asked as she was tumbling around and Trini just shook her head. That was something that Kim had been known to do when she got new powers, test them out and see exactly how far they could go.

"Because we just wanted you to see what it was like to morph. We didn't want for you to be wandering around in your uniform trying to become accustomed to it, because it'll never happen. In all the years that we've been rangers, none of us have ever fully gotten used to the feeling," Rocky said as they individually powered down and were able to return to their normal state. "Now, just a few rules about morphing and then we'll let you go for the day."

"Okay," Madeline said as she sat down next to Maddox and he looked over at her. He could tell that something had changed with her, but he didn't want to venture into what she had been able to tell about him while she looked at him in uniform.

"Rule number one, morphing is your absolute last option. Now don't get yourself killed, but be smart about when you morph. Depending on how strong their little goons are will determine if you need to morph any time anything shows up, we just don't know enough yet, but the general rule of thumb is, don't morph unless a monster shows up," Rocky said as they all nodded. They could certainly understand why the rangers would not want them to morph before the monster showed up. They had heard that these powers could be finicky.

"Rule number two, do not get caught morphing if you can help it. We've all had to make some life or death decisions about when to morph and when not to morph in front of people, but it's kinda like teleporting in front of people. You don't want to do it, but there are days when you don't really have a choice about it," Jason said as Madeline looked over at him and saw that there had been times when they had almost been caught and had obviously had to do some fast talking to get out of it.

"Rule number three, don't reveal yourself to an evil ranger unless you are dating them and even then only if you think you can bring them back. We'll figure out a way to bring them back, but you might just have to be patient. As you can see, even Kim and Tommy have been guilty of being evil and not coming back to the other without a lot of coaxing," Trini said, as she had not been there to see it, but she had certainly heard enough about it to know that it was a very scary thing to have to live with.

"And the final rule, don't ever think that because you are morphed you are invincible. Trust me there have been more times than I like to count that Kim or Tommy or Jason or Trini or any of us have been on a gurney because we were hit so hard in uniform that we were knocked out and the only reason that we made it back was because we had some people looking out for us. If we hadn't been there for each other, I know that some of us would not be here today," Aisha said as the rangers looked between each other. They had certainly thought that they would be able to handle things away from each other, but they had been wrong about that.

"You are going to need to learn to work together, quickly, because the longer that you stay divided, the longer that we will have problems with teaching you skills that you will need to survive some of the battles that we are afraid lie in front of you," Jason said as they all nodded. They had so much to think about tonight and they just didn't know if they would be able to do it, there was nothing that was going on that would make them believe that this was impossible, but they were asked to be rangers after all.

"Can we go home? I still have homework to do and I have to study before I go to school tomorrow," BethAnn said as Jason nodded that it was fine for them to leave if they wanted to and he noticed that Madeline and Maddox hung back while the others left and he could not help but smile. He did not want to point out what the two of them were feeling for each other, but he was sure that they knew it without him pointing it out. That much had been obvious from Madeline's reaction to her new powers.

---------------

"You're more than just friends?" Fred asked as Madeline looked at the ground Maddox looked over at the other rangers.

"We thought that you didn't care about our real lives, you just cared about what the PANEL members did to us and whether or not that was what they were truly asked to do," BethAnn said, as she was able to manage an answer, although they all knew what the answer was to his question. They just didn't think that the government needed to know what had been brought about by them being rangers together, although they had been slowly heading that way outside of the ranger world.

"Well, I guess that they never expected that you would offer things that had much more to do with real life and a lot less to do with you being a ranger," Fred said as Garrett just shook his head.

"Being a ranger becomes your life, whether you like it or not. We've all experienced it while we've been on the job and the lines between you normal life and ranger life begin to get blurry, until they just meld together without any of your control," Garrett said as Fred stopped the tape and nodded. He felt that if he attempted to listen to anything else, he would not be able to take it right now. There was just so much that he had never expected to hear about what being a ranger truly was.


	11. Injuries

"The next couple of days were relatively calm, Kim was discharged from the hospital and the three of us were put on shifts to watch the hospitals activities when neither Kim nor Tommy could be there for whatever reason," Madeline said as she pointed between Maddox, Sam, and herself. The others had not been able to do that because they had school to attend and Tommy absolutely refused to pull them out of school. "The two of them worked on their life outside of the rangers while there was peace. That peace didn't last long though."

"Did you really think that it would?" Fred asked as they shook their heads no, but you always hoped in the ranger world. It was the one thing that made all of the rest of their life not seem as bad as most people would think that it was.

---------------

"Hey guys," Tommy said as he walked into the Command Center, still in his gi and sweating from head to foot. He had had a class with some fellow black belts today and the four of them had beat up on each other pretty good. He had needed to get out a lot of his stress and had been glad for this, but the other black belts had been somewhat surprised at him. Tommy was never one to try to outgun people on purpose, but for once he didn't hold back and they found out what he could truly do and they knew that they never wanted to face him in any arena if they could help it.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Madeline asked as she looked back at Tommy and he just shrugged. He had spent this morning at the hospital with Kim, as his co-workers had taken over a good deal of the work at the dojo, but he had had to go in this afternoon. He needed to relieve some stress, as he was always in a rather poor mood when he had to look at his son through an incubator and he didn't need to take his mood out on Kimberly. They were hoping that they would be able to take him home in a couple of weeks, but right now everything looked iffy, even if they were going to be living in their own house. They didn't know if they could put his life at risk again.

"A little bit better today, I thought that it was only supposed to be you here," Tommy said as he nodded towards Maddox who was asleep on the couch. He had had the last shift and instead of going home, he had just taken up a spot on the couch, which Tommy knew had to be uncomfortable. He had slept on that couch a couple of times and he had been miserable the next day. Now, mind you that Kim had been mad at him the next day when he woke up, but that was not something that he wanted to discuss with them right now.

"He wanted to stay, so I couldn't really tell him no," Madeline said as she looked over at him and smiled. It made her feel better to know that someone else was here in case something happened, although they all really doubted that at this point.

"The two of you still haven't talked, have you?" Tommy asked as Madeline shook her head no, but she knew that she really didn't need to. Tommy was pretty good at reading peoples' minds when he set his mind to it. "Madeline, you need to before you go out there again."

"Why should we? Tommy, I feel bad enough for jumping into his feelings like that. I didn't expect my powers to be able to make me sense out people so well, but I can for some reason," Madeline said as Tommy shook his head as he bent over to look at the screen and saw Kim sitting next to the incubator, holding Chris's hand.

"You can because you are meant to. I know that it sounds crazy, but it's the only reason that I am able feel Kim out at all. There are bigger connections at hand than what you know about and trust me when I say that you'll appreciate it one day," Tommy said as Maddox stirred from his sleep and looked over at Madeline with a sleepy smile before laying back down. "Why don't you go outside and talk and I'll watch everything for a little while?"

"No, the reason we're doing this is so that you don't have to watch out for things like this," Madeline said as Tommy just shook his head and gave her a look that said he insisted that she leave at once and talk to Maddox. The two of them needed to talk everything out before anything bad happened, because Tommy was sure that this little bit of peace would not last long. He did not know why Halindon had not attacked again, but the feeling in his gut let him know that this was only temporary.

"You'll feel better once you do all of this," Tommy said as Madeline barely nodded and Maddox gave them a confused glance. What had he missed while he was sleeping?

"Our fearless leader has told me that I have to talk to you," Madeline said as Maddox looked over at Tommy who smiled at him and then went back to the work at hand. He had always been able to do that and these kids just had that much more to figure out about him before they could even begin to think that they knew him well.

"Well, I guess you have to listen to his guidance," Maddox said as he stood up and followed her into a separate room as Tommy shook his head as he sat down in front of the controls and continued to watch his wife. He was never tired of looking at her, even if she felt that she looked horrible, he always wanted to see more of her. He didn't know if that stemmed from so many years apart or if came from something else, either way it didn't matter to him. He enjoyed it immensely.

"I'm not even sure where to start," Madeline said as she sat down on the floor and Maddox sat down next to her and looked over at her with a gentle smile as he watched her intently. She was the one that needed to talk first about this, he didn't need to be the one to have to do it. He wasn't even sure exactly what they were here to talk about right now. "You're not going to make this easy on me, are you?"

"No, I'm not, Maddie," Maddox said as Madeline reached over and wrapped her arms around him and settled her head against his chest. They had been friends since their first day of class together, but they both knew that they had grown into much more over the last months, but neither of them wanted to admit the truth of the matter. They were afraid of what that would mean for the two of them if they put themselves out there.

"The other day I didn't mean to figure out what you were feeling," Madeline said as Maddox gave her a confused look. He hadn't known that she had figured out anything.

"What did you figure out that has you this embarrassed?" Maddox asked as Madeline looked up at him in confusion.

"Hold on, you didn't know that I felt the way that…what has Tommy tricked me into?" Madeline said, shaking her head as Tommy peaked in and smiled. He had thought that it would not take her very long to figure out that he knew exactly what was going on. "I'm going to kill you."

"Only after I have grandchildren," Tommy said as Madeline glared at him.

"You are lucky that you just had a kid," Madeline said as Tommy went back out. "Evil bastard."

"No, Tommy's not that bad of a person," Maddox said as Madeline just looked over at him.

"He tricked me into doing this. It's not my choice to be here talking to you about this, but now that I've started…" Madeline trailed off as Maddox gave her a very sympathetic gaze.

"You might as well finish it," Maddox said as Madeline looked up at him and he saw the look in her eyes. She was honestly scared. "What are you scared about?"

"Telling you what I know you felt, what I saw in you at that moment," Madeline said as Maddox looked at her and he tried to keep his mind from overloading and her being able to read him.

"You know…you know what I was feeling then?" Maddox asked as Madeline nodded her head yes, as both of their faces turned red. "I just thought that maybe you saw more into my powers."

"Yeah, I just saw that and a couple other things I never expected to see from you or I never wanted to admit that you might feel," Madeline said as an alarm went off and they both looked up before Tommy ran in and snatched both of them up.

"Vinons, the others are already there, it's time for you to go," Tommy said as they gave him a worried glance.

"Tommy wait…" Madeline began as they were teleported away and he went back over to the screen, knowing he would contact Kim as soon as she was alone.

-------------

"Madeline…" Maddox said as she shook her head and began fighting, as Sam, BethAnn and Garrett needed a small break. The three of them had been desperately trying to hold off their counterparts, but so far they had not been able to make much progress at all.

"Thanks," Sam said as he slowly picked himself up and looked over at the other rangers that had saved his ass.

"Don't mention it," Madeline said as she was thrown back into a car and landed on the ground with a thud.

"Maddie…" Maddox murmured as the others had regrouped enough to stand, but were just beginning to fight.

"I got her Maddox," Garrett said as he ran over to her and shook her gently and all she did was groan. "Come on, Madeline, wake up."

"I got her, go," Tommy said as he landed and gathered Madeline up and stood up as he caught Maddox's worried glance. "She'll be fine, just morph so no one else gets hurt."

"Maddox, get a hold of yourself," Sam said as they began morphing, but he could tell that the red ranger was not happy with what had just happened. None of them liked to see another person on the ground like that, but for Maddox it was definitely something more, they could all tell that.

"They just…" Maddox trailed off as Sam ran over to him and grabbed him by the arm.

"You are second in charge here, we're waiting for you to tell us what to do. Madeline will be fine, she's with Tommy, but we won't be if you don't start thinking real quick," Sam said as Maddox looked over at him as if this was the first time he had ever seen Sam and nodded before shaking his head.

"Let's fan out," Maddox said as he headed in one direction and Sam headed in the other while Garrett and BethAnn exchanged a glance before they followed their lead. They had no clue what was going through the others minds, but they knew that the two of them seemed to be a lethal pair, if they could ever get over disliking each other so much.

--------------

"Those things pack one hell of a punch," Tommy commented as he landed in the Command Center and Andros walked over to him.

"I guess they're going to have to morph from the very beginning," Andros commented as Tommy barely nodded. That was something that he had wanted to keep from happening, considering that they needed to save their power reserves. They didn't really know how to do that in the uniform yet and he was afraid that they would fall off far too quickly by just letting them morph as soon as the battle began.

"I hate saying that, but they're going to have to do it. Kim is going to kill me when she finds out that I had to go out and get her. If any of the others get knocked out, you're going to have to go fetch them," Tommy said as Andros nodded. He knew that Tommy didn't need any more shit on his shoulders, especially with what had happened over the last week.

"How's he doing?" Andros asked as he had been at the Space Station the majority of this time and had known about Kim having the baby, but had had no reason to come to Earth until Tommy had contacted him today. He knew that they were all going to have a pow-wow when they could and he had a feeling Tommy was going to call all of them in tonight.

"He's a strong little boy, but they said we should be able to take him home in a couple of weeks, unless he has any complications," Tommy said as Andros nodded. He couldn't image what it would be like to be away from his child and he didn't know how Tommy was actually dealing with this so well, but he was not going to ask. He was actually pretty sure that Tommy was only holding up this strong front for everyone except Kim, that was the only person that he felt that he could be honest with. "It looks like it is just a mild concussion. She should wake up pretty soon."

"Tommy! We could use some help out here!" Maddox yelled over the connection as he looked back over at the screen, saw the battle, and grimaced. He knew that these kids needed some guidance, but he didn't think that he was the person to do it.

"I'll go Tommy," Andros said as he gathered his mind together and then teleported out into the field.

"Who are you?" Maddox asked as Andros landed in the middle of the battle and began throwing punches without even looking at them.

"One of Tommy's little helpers, now start pulling out some weapons and blasting these things or you'll be sending another person to the hospital today," Andros said as he ducked under a blast and then threw the vinon that had attacked him into the nearest wall. "You can't be nice here."

"Ah," BethAnn said as she was hit in the shoulder as Garrett threw the vinon away from her before he knelt down next to her.

"We don't know what our weapons are," Sam said as he continued his hand to hand combat as Andros let out a very long sigh. He sure as hell had no clue, but he was sure that Tommy was listening to the communications.

"You have blasters, use them," Tommy said as Madeline let out another groan and glowed an eerie shade of white.

"You heard the man!" Andros yelled as the rangers started pulling out blasters, but they still hesitated. They weren't exactly sure where to aim until Sam just aimed at the gut and the vinon exploded which was enough for the others to begin firing. "Tommy, get me out of here."

"You know I think that we pissed them off," Garrett said, jokingly as the vinons disappeared and Maddox powered down and they followed his example. "Are you all right?"

"No, she was trying to tell me something important before…" Maddox said looking at them as he covered his face. Why hadn't he made it easy on her and just let her say it without joking around with her? "Come on, let's get out of here."

"Hey guys," Tommy said as they landed in the Command Center and Maddox glanced over at Madeline and then looked away. "Come on, let's take a walk. Andros, call me if she wakes up."

"Tommy I want…" Maddox said as Tommy gave him a look that said there was absolutely no room for discussion on the matter. He was going to go with him on a nice little walk.

"She was never able to tell you, was she?" Tommy said, purposefully, as Maddox nodded his head yes. "You're not the first ranger that has left something unsaid when it should have been said and you won't be the last."

"I don't really need any words of wisdom on this, Tommy," Maddox said as Tommy looked over at him, acting slightly hurt.

"Yeah, that's what I thought when I was in your shoes, but just listen to me, don't really try to pay attention to the things that you can't help. I couldn't help that I was turned evil, I couldn't help that I had to live with that and living with that meant that I had a lot of stuff to work out before I could be a good friend, much less a boyfriend to Kim," Tommy said as Maddox looked over at him. There was not much of an age difference between the two of them, but their attitude towards life was so drastically different. Tommy had seen some of the worst things that could happen to people and he knew that everything he got in this life was a blessing. Maddox was just beginning to learn that lesson.

"But what if she doesn't…" Maddox started as Tommy just shook his head.

"She will wake up Maddox, I've seen worse, hell I've been worse, it just may take her a little while. Everyone here is different, if me and Kim are ever knocked out together, I'll be the one to come to first and then it's just a matter of time when we're together. Trust me when I say that you may be like that or this may just be her body's way of protecting her," Tommy said as Maddox nodded.

"Why did you make us talk?" Maddox asked as Tommy smiled over at him.

"I'm sure that you could think of some reasons if you thought about it long enough, considering that I'm sure you have guessed in the last few minutes what she must have wanted to talk to you about before the two of you had to go out there," Tommy said as Maddox just shook his head. He still hadn't been able to get a concrete hold of what exactly was going on with her. "Think, why would seeing your emotions disturb her?"

"I don't know, my emotions could have just scared her, maybe she didn't like that side of me," Maddox said as Tommy just shook his head, knowing that was complete and utter bull shit. Maddox could figure out what it was if he was just willing to admit it to himself.

"What exactly were you thinking when you saw her in that suit?" Tommy asked as Maddox's eyes widened and he began shaking his head. "She was shocked that you would ever look at her that way, want her that way when it was obvious to her that you didn't really seem interested. That's why she's been avoiding you the last few days, spending time with the others when she would have normally spent time with you. One of you needs to say it to the other, because I know that if you let this go too far, one of you is going to be close to dying before the other will admit the truth and I don't want you to have to live through what I went through."

"Isn't this close?" Maddox asked as Tommy just shook his head no. He knew that Madeline was going to be just fine from the work up that they had done on her so far. He honestly didn't think that telling them the truth of what had happened to him and Kim in the past would make them feel any better, so Maddox was just going to have to trust him.

"I know she'll be fine, but I think that you need to have a serious conversation with her as soon as you can," Tommy said as Maddox nodded as they finished their circle of the block and Tommy held open the door for him.

"Why didn't they explain to us that we each have a weapon?" BethAnn asked as Tommy smiled.

"Because they thought that you would have paid more attention to all of the things that we randomly called upon while we were out in the field," Tommy said, jokingly, as Maddox walked over and sat down next to Madeline's cot while the others took a look at him, as they caught Tommy's glare, which caused them to look away. "I want all of you to go home tonight and get some rest. Maddox is going to stay and monitor the hospital and Madeline. We have to have a meeting."

"I know, when are the others going to get here?" Andros asked as Tommy looked down at his watch and he shook his head.

"Kim should be here in a few minutes and I think Jason and Trini are going to come with her. Rocky has to pick up Aisha, and T.J. said he'll be here a little bit after five. We should be able to start in the next twenty minutes if everything goes right," Tommy said as Andros nodded and then walked over to the console.

"Are Trini and Jason bringing Macy?" Andros asked as Tommy nodded his head yes. She had been at a sitter's all day and he knew that the two of them just didn't want to risk anymore. The only reason that they had done that was because neither of them had been able to get any free time from work. Their normal jobs were starting to press in on this job and they all knew that the further that they got in, the more likely that it was that they would have to quit the work that they were involved in.

"I thought I told ya'll to go home," Tommy said as he turned to face the three rangers that were standing around Madeline.

"How can we just leave her here?" BethAnn asked as Tommy looked over at her and she had a brief moment in which she reconsidered what she said before she decided to stand by it. "All of you are having some sort of meeting, no one will be here to look after her."

"That's why Maddox is staying," Andros said as they looked over at him, not exactly sure if they liked him or if they just wanted to tell him to shut up. "We're telling you to leave because what we have to discuss is something that none of you should be involved in if we can help it."

"We're rangers, we kinda are involved in whatever you have to talk about," BethAnn said as Tommy looked over at her and she saw the pleading look in his eye.

"You're not staying because what we are talking about really doesn't have anything to do with how we are going to treat the rangers and it has everything to do with how my wife and I are going to handle some situations that we never thought would come up again," Tommy said as the three nodded and then turned to leave. They could tell that Tommy didn't want to tell them even this much, but he had to do so, so that they would leave. He could see that their stubborn streak had come up enough that they were ready to fight for the right to stay put.

---------------------

"Oh come on, that is just cruel," Fred said as Madeline smiled.

"Well, it is time for a lunch break, so that's a good place to leave off and I'm pretty sure that everyone will be interested to hear that tape. You notice how the rangers really don't trust to have to take someone to the hospital, because there is no way to explain some of the injuries. That's why most of us just sucked it up. Now, we want some lunch and we'll be back in about an hour," Maddox said as he stood up and the rangers filed out of the room leaving Fred dumbfounded. He had thought that it would be easy to interview or just listen to them talk about being rangers, but he was finding out with each passing day that it was much harder than he could ever imagine. These people were interesting, they had lives, they had other things that made them tick other than being a ranger and he was beginning to wonder if his higher ups ever took that into account. That the rangers were only human and could not be expected to perform some sort of miracle when they were faced with things that would make most people have an emotional breakdown on a daily basis. It amazed him to know that the older rangers just took it all in stride when he knew that most people on this earth were not cut out for the job.


	12. First Look

"You know we're about to talk about things you've never heard before," Madeline said as they stood up from their lunch and the others looked at her.

"Yeah, this was the one meeting that we were thrown out of, wasn't it?" Sam asked as Maddox and Madeline nodded. They had both experienced it only because of the fact that she was passed out for the first thirty minutes or so and then they just didn't throw them out. It seemed that the rangers had never noticed that she had actually woken up during the entire fiasco. "You're not going to clue us in?"

"Nope, we're going to leave it as a surprise because this is the only part that I get to tell," Maddox said as they had designated Madeline to be the story teller but she was not around to remember this particular exchange, so he had the responsibility to talk about it.

"You know, have any of you talked to them since we were forced to come here?" BethAnn asked as Maddox shook his head no. It had crossed his mind, but he definitely didn't think it was a smart thing to do. He did not want to cause anymore trouble for them if he could help it.

"We were told not to, so I imagine that they know what's going on, even if they don't want them to. We haven't been this secretive with them since we decided to pull a surprise party for Chris coming home," Madeline said as Maddox nodded. There was nothing that they could do, as trying to contact them might just make things worse.

"I still have a bad feeling about all of this," Maddox said as they walked back up to the building. "There has to be some way to tell them."

"Do you honestly think that they don't know? They probably scanned the earth just to see where we are and if they'd have to raise hell for what's going on," Madeline said as Sam and the others nodded. That sounded exactly like Tommy's policy on all things out of the ordinary: investigate, kick ass, and then go home.

"Well, it's time we hear about this," Fred said as they walked in and they all managed a smile over at him. They could tell that he had fallen in love with the older rangers and their story, which was exactly what they hoped. It was hard for anyone to not be moved by what they had been through, they knew that they might have been unmoved at first, but after that first battle, they knew. They knew that the rangers worked their asses off for them to have a chance to do their job and that was something that they were thankful for everyday. If they hadn't had the older rangers, there was no doubt in their minds that they would not have made it, at all.

-------------

"How is Kim doing?" Andros asked as Tommy just shook his head. He was sure that Andros was just trying to be a good friend, but he couldn't bring himself to talk about how Kim felt. She had been distant from him and he was sure that was a direct result of the fact that she blamed herself for having Chris early, but he had desperately tried to point out to her that she could not help what had happened. She, however, was not listening to him about that.

"She's doing better than I thought she would be, but she is still not her usual chipper self and I doubt she will get back to that until Chris is at home. I can't help but agree with her, but I have to keep her spirits up, it's just rough," Tommy said as the door creaked open and he looked back in time to see his wife enter the room and he gave her a smile as she looked over and gave Madeline a concerned look.

"What happened?" Kim asked as she walked up to him and he reached up and gave her a hug.

"The vinons are stronger than we thought," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head. That was not something that she wanted to hear if she could help it. She didn't like thinking about what would happen to herself if she had to face them right now. "Maddox will watch after her for us."

"Yeah, I know," Kim murmured as he pulled her into his lap and she hesitantly relaxed against him as he gave her a concerned look. She had only ever done that before when they were starting over again and that had been four years ago now.

"How was this afternoon?" Tommy asked as she just shook her head and wiped her eyes as he pulled her close and sat there silently, giving her the little bit of reassurance that he had left in him. "He's going to be fine, baby."

"Yeah, I know," Kim murmured again as the others all walked in as Tommy looked back at them and gave them a smile.

"Hey guys," Tommy said as they all walked over to him and they began their normal customs for seeing each other after a good while away from the others.

"Tommy, it's good to see you," T.J. said as he shook Tommy's hand, but noticed that Kim was barely even looking at them. They had been forewarned that she might not be her usual self, but this was not what any of them expected. They had expected her to be upset, but they also thought that she would surely talk to them. "Hey Kim."

"Hey," Kim whispered as Tommy looked at her with a concerned filled gaze and the others noticed that he looked worried. Kim usually did not let anything get her down for this long, but she hadn't been the same since she had Chris.

"Can you give us a minute?" Tommy said as the others nodded as Kim gave him a very confused look and he gently rubbed her back as he looked up at her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Kim said, just a bit too quickly as Tommy reached up and gave her a gentle kiss and he could feel the tears stream down her face.

"Tell me, please," Tommy whispered as Kim looked down and just shook her head that she couldn't. She didn't know how she could tell him without wrecking his world. "I can't help you feel better if you won't tell me what's going on."

"There's nothing to tell that you don't already know. I'm upset because my child is in the NICU, I'm worried about what you're going to do, I can't help but think that Halindon will come after us again, I just can't do this anymore Tommy," Kim said as he wrapped her in a secure hug and she just rested against him as her head rested on his shoulder. "Just love me Tommy and trust me."

"You know that I do Kim, but you're not acting like yourself," Tommy said as Kim looked up at him and she tried to keep her tears from falling. "Kimberly, baby…don't. Don't waste any more tears on this."

"How can I not Tommy?" Kim asked, quietly, as Madeline let out an involuntary groan and they both looked over at where she was still lying motionless and saw in Maddox's eyes that he thought this was complete and total bull shit.

"Just hold it together long enough for us to talk to them and then I will give you all of the things that you deserve," Tommy said as Kim barely nodded and Tommy stood up and then placed her back in the chair. "I'll be right back."

"Tommy?" Rocky asked as he barely nodded. "Were you able?"

"We'll see…come on. I've made a promise to her that will only keep her satisfied for a little while," Tommy said as the others nodded.

"What do you have to say?" Kim asked as the others walked in and they gave her a confused look.

"The information I've gathered and whatever Tommy has brought us here for," Andros said as Tommy looked over at his wife and she gave him a disdainful glare.

"What the hell Tommy?" Kimberly yelled as she stood up and began to charge towards him as Jason wrapped her up in a hug and held her back for a moment, as she was still too weak to beat him in one movement, but she did move past him after a swift knee to the crotch. "What the hell is going on that I don't know about?"

"Kimberly, please," Tommy said as she slapped him and he gently grabbed her arms and held her still. He knew that she had too much on her and it worried him to see her this close to completely snapping on him. "Listen to me! We have to talk about all of this! There is nothing that we can do until it is talked out!"

"You son of a bitch!" Kimberly yelled as she managed to get one hand free and slapped him again. "How could you Tommy?"

"I haven't done anything Kimberly!" Tommy yelled as Jason pulled Kimberly back and held her as tightly as he could. None of them had ever seen the two of them fight like this before.

"You're asking me to stay here, in this hell hole!" Kimberly yelled as Tommy reached out for her but Jason shook his head. He knew that Tommy didn't want to get slapped a third time. "How the hell could you!"

"How can I not? I can't lose you Kimberly!" Tommy yelled as he reached around Jason and pulled her to him and made her look him in the eyes. "I cannot lose you."

"And you think I'll let you go after him?" Kimberly yelled as Tommy looked away from her and the others gave him a questioning look. They never thought that Tommy would take it that far. "I'm not letting you kill yourself just because you want to finish Halindon off! Do you think that I can lose you? Do you think that you can pull this shit on me and get away with it?"

"Tommy, you can't," Andros said as they saw him close his eyes and he looked away from them.

"He made this personal when he went after my wife," Tommy said as the others looked at him and Kim just shook her head.

"Tommy, you can't," Kimberly managed to say as she circled her arms around him and he felt her legs give way.

"I know," Tommy whispered as Andros and the others took a few steps away. "I promise you that I won't."

"Thank you," Kim whispered as he reached down and kissed her cheek. "Thank you Tommy."

"Can we start talking or are the two of you going to blow up at each other again?" Andros asked, with a remarkable bit of calm as they looked at him. None of the others would have been able to look at them like that.

"We'll go at each other again later," Tommy said as Andros barely looked at them as he began pulling up computer programs and the visual simulator pulled out a topographical map which Andros stood over.

"I've been able to gather data on the power source that seems to be driving Halindon to attack the earth. It seems to be the same thing that Rita and Lord Zedd were truly after once upon a time, they just never were able to find it. Halindon knows much more and the location is directly under Angel Grove," Andros said as Tommy looked over at him and Kim's mouth dropped open. They could see the mass of the power source and they could not believe that they had never been told about it before.

"You've got to be kidding me," Kim muttered as Tommy reached over for her arm and she just swatted his hand away. "Are you trying to make me have a nervous breakdown?"

"No, but I guess that we're doing a good job," Andros said as Kim raked her fingers through her hair and then stood up and left the room as Tommy started to stand up, but realized that she wanted some time alone, then he would be able to talk to her.

"Aren't you going to go after her?" Jason asked as Tommy shook his head no and they just looked at him.

"She needs some time alone, I'll talk to her as soon as all of this is over," Tommy said as Trini passed Macy over to Jason and followed Kimberly out, as she knew that Tommy was right, she didn't need him, but she did need someone to talk to. "So the energy source is what they have been after for all of these years?"

"Yeah, but it's dangerous for us to try to remove it," Andros said as Tommy barely nodded and they watched him for a moment.

"Is there any way that we could tap into it even more and make the rangers more invincible to where people will not wish to go against us," Tommy suggested as Andros just shook his head no.

"I don't think that it would be wise to try it, considering what might happen if they overload themselves. I think that they'd try to pull too much and wind up doing more harm than good. I'd trust one of us to do it, but that's only because we've experienced different levels of powers and we know how and when to draw up more," Andros said as Tommy barely nodded. He couldn't fight him if he honestly thought that this was the best thing for the rangers and in an odd way he agreed with him as well. He knew that if these rangers got a chance at extra powers, they wouldn't know how to control it, they weren't even good at controlling what they had now.

"What about just destroying it, period," T.J. said as Andros looked over at him and nodded his head that that was a possibility.

"The problem with that is that if we have something coming after the earth, it leaves the rangers without any powers and in order to get to the power source, we might risk trapping them there," Andros said as Tommy just shook his head.

"We can't risk that, I don't think that I can ask that out of them with a clear conscience," Tommy said as Andros nodded. He had been sure that Tommy would say something like that when it all came down to it. He had always been a rather fearless leader and after his experiences they all completely understood why he was that way. He had seen more than any of them and he was sure that this was not going to be extremely pleasant.

"But can you continue to do this to yourself?" Jason asked as Tommy looked over at him and Macy silently reached for Tommy who took her without a second thought.

"It's never really been about me, Jason," Tommy said as Jason looked over at him and they could all see just how much Tommy had sacrificed in his life in order to be able to save the world, however, all of them thought it was time that someone else took that over. They couldn't do it anymore, it had already cost them one child and had come damn near close to costing them another.

"Yeah, but you have to take care of yourself now," Rocky said as Tommy nodded that he completely agreed, although there were still some things on his list of things to do that included him actually doing them.

"Yeah," Tommy said as he felt like a child being scolded for doing the right thing, but under the wrong circumstances.

"Hey, you're not the only one who wants to go out there and deal with Halindon, but Tommy, none of us can anymore. We all know what happened to you the last time you were on a ranger team and, to be honest, that scares me enough to keep me away," T.J. said as Tommy barely nodded. His successor had always been more level headed than he was, but he didn't like to admit that. T.J. had never really run on emotions, while Tommy let his emotions overpower him more than once.

"Yeah, but they don't keep coming after you, do they?" Tommy asked as T.J. looked away. He had a point there and it was a point that hit home. Tommy knew that if they were in his shoes they wouldn't just sit back and let it happen. They would decide to fit and that was something that they all knew.

"We've got to trust the kids Tommy, otherwise, you might as well take their powers and give them back to their rightful owners," Jason said as Tommy nodded. He could imagine telling Kim that she was going to have to be a ranger again and that reception was not going to be a pleasant one from what he could see.

"I'd be dead if I told Kim that," Tommy said as the others smiled. They weren't leaving him much of a choice, it was all a lot of shit that he was not sure he could be able to take.

"Yeah, because she'd have to take some too," Aisha said as Maddox looked up from his post and over at Tommy, who was refusing to look over at him. They had not known that Kim had been one of the people to receive powers, but she had been.

"Yeah, don't ever say that again," Tommy said as they nodded. They knew that with Tommy being in here alone, they could say it. But they also could tell that he never really wanted to hear about any of this ever again if he could help it.

"Tommy, she won't talk to me," Trini said as Tommy looked at her in shock. She had never thought that Kim wouldn't talk to her, but she had shut herself down and he didn't think that they were going to be able to get to her. She and Tommy had been skating around a lot of issues lately and they had to actually talk to each other. Things were not going to get better if they continued on like this.

"I'll go take care of it," Tommy said as Trini grabbed his arm and she looked back at him.

"You have to talk to her Tommy," Trini said as Tommy gave her a confused look. "I mean really talk to her, no more of this skating around how you really feel, because the last time the two of you were like this, you broke up."

"Okay," Tommy barely muttered, as Trini looked at him and he knew that she was dead serious. "Go home, I don't need anyone else here."

"I swear that I'll kill you if you don't help her Tommy," Trini said as Tommy gave her a confused glance, but nodded. He didn't know what Trini was seeing, but he could certainly imagine how Kimberly was acting because that was how he felt. He had never wanted to leave her in this condition, but he had thought that she was all right. At least that was how she acted with him, but he had gotten to the point that he knew that could hide things from him that no one else could, because she didn't want to hurt him. However, he knew that right now was a very hard time, for the both of them and ignoring each other certainly was not helping them. It was hurting them more than anything else that they could imagine.


	13. Damn You Tommy

"What happened?" Madeline asked as she looked up to see Maddox hovering over her, looking extremely worried. She didn't see or hear anyone else around, but she was sure that they weren't alone here. She knew that they would not just leave her with him after whatever had happened.

"You took a pretty hard hit back there against a car," Maddox said as Madeline tried to sit up but suddenly felt nauseous and leaned over the other side of the bed and threw up as Maddox reached over and gently rubbed her back. She, however, was having a very hard time holding herself upright and Maddox was on his feet and catching her before he knew what he was doing. "Just close your eyes, I got you."

"Are you all right?" Madeline whispered looking up at him and he barely nodded his head yes. She could barely keep her eyes open to see him, but she knew that this was the best thing that could be done.

"Kim and Tommy are still in back, talking about something," Maddox said, trying to dodge what he knew he would inevitably have to say. He did not want to admit to her that he had seen the two of them blow up. It was definitely an occasion where he wished that he could be in a different state, actually a different country if he could have managed it.

"Maddox, I'm going to throw up again," Madeline said as he took a step back from her to allow her to throw up, but again she swayed towards falling off of her cot and he scooped her up this time and carried her over to the couch. "You don't have to do this for me."

"Maddie, don't. I want to be here," Maddox said as she looked at him and he tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and smiled down at her. "I think I know what you were trying to say before we got called out today."

"You…you don't have to…Maddox I was the one to bring it up," Madeline started but she had to close her eyes and lean against him to regain her equilibrium as everything seemed to be spinning around her.

"I just never thought that you might even feel the same," Maddox said as she dared to open her eyes and face him and he saw the surprise in her eyes. "Will you have me?"

"Yeah, if you'll have me after the hell I'm going to put you through," Madeline said as she turned away again and was barely able to keep from throwing up everything left in her stomach.

"I don't think it could be any worse than the hell that Kim has in store for Tommy," Maddox said as Madeline gave him a curious look. "I'll explain it all to you when you are a little bit better."

"Thank you," Madeline said as she rested against him and he watched her eyes slowly close as she went back to sleep. He was honestly scared to let her, but he was also afraid to keep her awake at this point. It was obvious that she needed rest and even with her injuries he wanted to allow her to have that.

----------------

"Kimberly…" Tommy whispered as he walked into the back room and saw her curled up in a corner, trying to avoid people, but he knew that he had to talk to her. If he couldn't reach her, he was afraid that no one would be able to. "Talk to me baby."

"I can't Tommy…I just can't anymore," Kim said as he saw the tears rolling down her cheeks and he felt ashamed of his earlier actions. He hated fighting with Kimberly, it always made him feel sick to his stomach and right now was no different. He felt horrible for doing this to her, but there was just so much that they had been holding in lately and it was all erupting now.

"Please look at me," Tommy begged as she looked in his direction, but would not meet his eyes as he walked towards her and squatted down in front of her. "We have to talk."

"I can't," Kim said, again, as she scooted away from him and he covered his own face as the tears fell from his eyes. He hated when she wouldn't talk to him, it made him feel useless. It made him feel like he had failed to get back to her heart and he knew that he had, but there were times when the old insecurities resurfaced and he couldn't help but think it.

"Kimberly, please, I need you to talk to me. I can't…I can't face the fact that we may fall apart again because of this. You're the woman I want and the woman I need. Please, just talk to me. I don't care what you have to say, I just want to know the truth from you," Tommy said as he peered up into her eyes and she saw the tears flowing down his face.

"It's just been too much Tommy," Kimberly said as he reached to hold her, but she just put her hands up to keep him away. She needed her space from him right now and she just hoped that he would accept it. "I need my husband, not someone who keeps on working with the rangers, running off to help, running off with me not knowing if you'll ever come back. I can't keep doing this, not right now. Not with our child lying in the NICU right now. I need to know that I will not get a phone call saying that you have been killed."

"Kim, we promised that we would see these rangers through, that we would teach and help them. I don't want to abandon you, I would never do that to you, but I can't turn my back now. We're too far in to just turn away," Tommy whispered as she looked over at him and he looked down at the floor. "Kimberly, I know that we've been through hell together, but please just listen to me, hold on for just a second."

"I can't hold on for a second anymore Tommy!" Kimberly yelled as she rose to her feet and looked down at him. Tommy knew better than to stand up in front of her now, otherwise he would risk never having children again. "Damn it, I've gone through hell Tommy! I can't deal with this at all! I can't deal with you helping rangers and your child being in hospital hanging on to his life! Tommy all I want is you to be here for us! Don't you dare tell me that all of this crap means more to you than me!"

"Kimberly, I'm not saying that," Tommy said, rather calmly as she looked down at him and then smacked him with the full force that she could manage, but then she clutched her stomach as she felt a few staples pull and Tommy caught her as she crashed down next to him.

"Oh…" Kimberly moaned as he turned her around in his arms and pulled up her shirt enough to look at the staples and see how much damage had been done.

"Don't move, give me a second and then you can yell at me some more," Tommy whispered as he noticed a little bit of blood, but nothing that scared him too much. "You all right?"

"I'm fine, Tommy," Kim said as she wiped her tears and she looked up at him.

"Kim, I know that you are mad at me, but…" Tommy began as Kim just placed her hand over his mouth.

"No, I'm not mad, I am furious, Tommy," Kim said as she tried to push him away, but felt her stomach pull again and this time let out a shriek.

"Baby, it's fine, don't move," Tommy said as she tried to push him away again, but this time he held tight and he gently ran his fingers over the stables. "Let me hold on to you. I'm going to not let you go Kim, I love you too much."

"Tommy, tell me how I can let you keep doing this and have you be there with our child, have you be there for me?" Kim asked as Tommy looked down at his own feet and she then pulled his face up. "Tell me what you are going to do and I'll tell you exactly where I am going as soon as this pain leaves my stomach."

"Kimberly…I can't…how can you ask me…" Tommy muttered as her face crumbled and she forced herself to stand up and stumbled towards her purse.

"I can't believe you!" Kimberly yelled as Tommy stood to follow her and she just held up her hands to stop him. "Don't…I'm going to Trini's…I don't want to see you…"

"Kimberly," Tommy begged as she just shook her head.

"I'm tired of coming second Tommy…" Kim said as she pushed him away and he found himself standing there in shock. They had never had a fight like this before, she had never walked out like this before. He didn't know that this day would come, but right now there was so much more on the line than anything that they could ever imagine happening.

"Kim…Beautiful…don't go…" Tommy whispered as she stormed through the other room as Maddox and Madeline watched her go and turned to see their mentor standing in the doorway, tears streaming down his cheeks as he knew that he was going to have to jumping through every hole known to man to get her to understand. "Please God, don't take her away now."

"Go after her," Maddox said as Tommy looked over at the two of them and just shook his head.

"She'll kill me if I do that," Tommy said as they both looked at him. "I don't know…I can't choose…she's asking me…I love her more than anything, but…"

"Does she know that?" Madeline asked as Tommy nodded. "You may need to remind her."

----------------

"Whoa, that is what their blow up was over? How in the world did that happen?" BethAnn asked as Madeline nodded her head yes.

"It's not something that they like to talk about. They didn't sleep in the same bed until Chris came home and even then, she didn't forgive him. She only forgave him after Halindon…" Maddox started as they just looked at him in disbelief. This was definitely something that they had not expected. Kim's capture had been something that had torn all of them up, but none of them had known the true extent of what had happened to her, except for Tommy and they were all sure that none of them would want to talk to Tommy. The only thing was none of them knew that Madeline had talked to Tommy and she had much more to tell them about the experience.

"After Halindon nearly killed her," Madeline said as they looked over at her. "I know everything and soon everyone here will, but I think that we need to wait for tomorrow. I don't think that I can do it today."

"All right," Fred said, as he had learned from the past few days that if they didn't want to talk anymore, they wouldn't. As long as they kept talking, they would stay here and then after everything was reviewed, the decision would be made, whether or not the rangers were to be prosecuted.


	14. Repentance

"Yesterday we left off with an explosion from your mentors," Fred said as Madeline nodded that that was indeed the case. They had not had any huge battles yet in their account, but the fact was that they were going to be talking about that next. The things that had happened in the weeks following that explosion changed them forever, but they had never really talked about it. They had seen no reason to bring up those sorts of memories.

"Yeah, Kim and Tommy definitely went through more than any parent ever should have to," Maddox said as the others nodded. It had not been a pleasant experience knowing that the two of them were at odds with each other, but now that they knew the reason, they certainly were not too happy about some of the stuff that they knew happened in the next few weeks.

"The day that Kimberly was captured was a day that I'll never forget," Madeline began as they looked over at her. Many of them had that day etched in their memories, but they had all hoped that it would get better in time, but it hadn't. It still haunted them in their dreams as the first experience as to what Halindon was capable of and that was when they knew exactly how much trouble they were in.

----------------

"Oh, yuck!" Madeline yelled as shaking her head and jumping up and down as Maddox rolled on the floor with laughter. "What the hell did you think that was? Uh, that was gross!""You're not joking," Maddox said as he was draining glass after glass of water. "Remind me that I never want to eat your cooking again."

"It's something new! Don't blame me that it doesn't taste good! I made it like the recipe said and obviously the people who made the recipe didn't try it!" Madeline exclaimed as their communicators crackled to life and she looked down at it. The last few weeks had been quite dramatic with Kimberly and Tommy at each other's throats, although no one else knew why they were mad at each other and they were not willing to tell them about it either.

"Madeline, Maddox," Sam said as their communicators crackled to life and Madeline grabbed her own to answer back.

"Yeah, what's going on Sam?" Madeline asked as Maddox looked over at her and started putting away everything that he could find. They had learned that these calls usually meant that they were going to have to teleport away somewhere in a matter of seconds and they both liked to leave their homes in some sibilance of order.

"We need you to come in, we have a little problem," Sam said as they exchanged a glance and then Maddox grabbed her hand and they teleported away.

"What's our little problem?" Madeline asked as she looked around and saw Tommy sitting in the corner cradling Chris, but otherwise not paying much attention to them. They, however, did notice the six inch long cut that trailed down his forearm, but did not think too much of it. Tommy always seemed to get injuries that no one could really explain and none of them were brave enough to ask him about it.

"Halindon decided that he wants to fuck with me some more," Tommy said as Madeline looked over at him and then did a quick look around the room and noticed that Kimberly was not anywhere in sight. They all knew that the two of them weren't getting along, but she could not see a reason that Kim would not be here, considering that something huge was going on.

"Where's Kim?" Maddox asked as Madeline just shook her head as Sam nodded that what she was thinking was true.

"No…he couldn't have…how did he get in here?" Madeline blurted out as Tommy just shook his head as he passed Chris off to Trini and he immediately started crying, which caused Tommy to take him back.

"He didn't get in here," Tommy said as they all looked over at him and he looked down at the floor. After their fight he had not had the heart to force her into staying at the Command Center, he had let them both go back home and now he was paying for that decision. "It was our home, so I don't think you have to do much imagining…"

"Tommy…what do we have to do?" Madeline asked as he looked at the ground and let out a very long sigh. He had never really had to explain to someone how to rescue another ranger. He had always just done what his gut told him was right, but this was not one of those situations. If he tried that now, he was sure that he would get one of the rangers, hurt, if not killed. "It can't possibly be that bad, have you seen the monsters that we have been going up against lately?"

"Yeah, but Halindon's monsters are nothing compared to him," Tommy said as she looked up at him, slightly confused. Why was he talking like Halindon was nearly invincible? Was there something that he knew that they didn't about this creature? "I don't know if you are prepared to go in and do what has to be done."

"Well, you don't have much of a choice if we are prepared, unless you are suggesting that you go and get her," Madeline said as Tommy looked around at the others who were giving him a stern gaze. They all knew that that was exactly what he wanted to do, but they could not longer risk him. Kim would want to know that Chris would still have his father, even if she was no longer there.

"It's not that I don't want to go in and get her, they won't let me go and get her. The problem is, we only have enough power to send one of you in and although I'd love to delegate this task to you, Madeline, you just don't have the strength to face Halindon," Tommy said as Madeline's mouth dropped open and he held up his hands to stop her from saying anything. He did not need to face any protesting or bickering over the decision that he had already come to, he just needed them to do what he was asking. "It's not personal, but I don't want to have to send someone in to get you as well, he's one hell of a fighter."

"So who is going in?" Maddox asked as Tommy looked over at him and he began shaking his head in denial. He was not sure that he wanted this task sitting on his shoulders. If he couldn't get her out, he doubted that he would ever be able to face Tommy again. "I don't think…I don't know if I can have that riding on me."

"I don't really have a choice, Madeline has to be here to hold down the fort and you're the best fighter that I have," Tommy said as Maddox looked at Madeline and she just shook her head.

"Okay," Maddox said as he grabbed his wrist to teleport, but Tommy caught him only moments before he tried to act.

"I'm trusting you a lot here, Maddox. The two of us may not be getting along all that great, but she is the mother of my son and my wife, you have to get her out of there," Tommy said as Maddox nodded and then teleported away as Tommy attempted to pass Chris to Aisha and he actually went without any tears being shed.

"Tommy, are you…" Madeline began as Jason grabbed her arm and shook his head. There was no use in asking Tommy if he was all right, they all knew that he was not right now and there was no use making any of this more obvious.

"Shit," Sam swore as he looked down at the screen and just shook his head. The vinons were destroying the town and it seemed that Halindon had already sent a monster as a further preventative measure. He wanted to make sure that they would not have any rangers to spare to come get Kimberly, but it was too late for that.

"I got it, Sam," Madeline said as she sent out the call for Garrett and BethAnn and she just hoped that the both of them were able to find a place to take this message.

"Yes, Madame," Garrett said as he answered and Madeline watched as the vinons ran after a civilian.

"Get your ass out of class and teleport; you'll be carried to the battle. And where the hell is BethAnn?" Madeline asked as Sam was passing her a surge booster that the three older rangers had been given permission to use. BethAnn and Garrett had about the same level of powers, but it had been agreed that they needed some help, to be able to maintain what was set up for them to do.

"She's with me, so hold your horses. We'll be there as soon as we can," Garrett said as Madeline nodded and then teleported herself out.

"He's just doing this to mess with you, Tommy," Jason said as Tommy sat down behind the console to watch the battle.

"I know and he's doing a damn good job of it. I just hope that Maddox…" Tommy trailed off as Jason placed his hand on Tommy's shoulder and he just shook his head. "I can't lose her Jason."

"I know," Jason said as he allowed himself to focus on the battle and he just hoped that everything was going all right in the battle that they were unable to see.

------------

"You really think that I am a good person to capture?" Kimberly asked as she looked over at Halindon, ignoring that pain that she felt from her still healing abdomen. She knew that Tommy was going to be here as soon as he could, she just had to try to keep herself alive that long.

"No, you are not a good person, you are the best…Tommy Oliver is nothing without you. I take you away and he ceases to exist," Halindon said as Kim glared over at him and suddenly a glimmer of red light appeared in the room. She then knew that something was definitely wrong, Tommy's streak was no longer red, so what the hell was going on here? Why hadn't they sent Tommy? "Tommy, perhaps?"

"Kim…" Maddox began as she violently shook her head and he looked up just in time to duck and that was the only thing that seemed to save him from taking that blow. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Be a big boy and fight me," Halindon joked, cruelly, as Maddox ducked to avoid another blow and Kim began working her way out of her restraints. It was obvious to her that Halindon did not want to truly hurt her; he wanted to hurt Tommy when he came for her, but it seemed that Jason and the others had been able to talk him out of it and she didn't know how they managed it.

"His left side is weak," Kim instructed as Halindon dared a glance back at her and paid for it when Maddox threw the full weight of his body into Halindon sending him into the nearest wall.

"Are you okay?" Maddox asked as he ran over to Kim and she barely nodded. She had sustained a few wounds, but otherwise she was perfectly fine, from what she could tell.

"Watch out," Kim murmured as Maddox wheeled around and was thrown to the floor by Halindon and Kim looked up at him in shock as he pulled out his sword and made a sweep for her, but Maddox had managed to recover fast enough to throw him off balance and prevent him from killing Kimberly. The tip of the sword, however, grazed her side and sprayed blood around the room. "Use your weapons, Maddox."

"Kim…" Maddox murmured as she just shook her head and Maddox continued to fight Halindon, knowing that he had to deal him a heavy blow soon, so that he could get Kimberly back to the Command Center. However, Maddox was thrown to the floor by Halindon and in the process he was knocked unconscious.

"Looks like it is just you and me Kimberly," Halindon said as he wielded his sword in his arm again. "I wished to do this in front of Tommy, but I guess sending you back to him dead is just as good."

"No…" Kimberly muttered as she felt the oddest sensation surge through her veins and within moments knew what was happening as she was engulfed by a pink ray of light and Halindon stared at her as she transformed into the pink ranger right before his eyes.

"You think that little stunt will protect you?" Halindon asked as Kimberly managed to pull herself out of her bonds and stood up to face the man, although she felt the full extent of her injury and the fact that she was still not supposed to do much more than jog.

"Well, it's never failed me in the past," Kim said as she kicked Halindon's feet out from under him and then grabbed Maddox and teleported away, only to land in the Command Center unconscious as well.

--------------

"Oof," Madeline grunted as she landed on the ground and rolled over to avoid being stepped on before pushing herself to her feet. "What I wouldn't do to have some more back up…"

"Get that thought out of your head, Maddox is back here knocked out," Jason's voice boomed in her helmet as she seemed to jerk out of the strange reality of the moment and then launched herself into the battle even more. She knew that if what Jason said was true that all of them were going to have to kick ass just to get out of here and be able to fight another day.

"What the hell?" BethAnn asked as she had begun to kick a vinon, but it disappeared along with the monster.

"I have the feeling that this is not going to be pretty," Sam said as they were teleported back to the Command Center and saw Kim and Maddox both on gurneys, while Billy sewed up a slash in Kimberly's side.

"She was lucky, Tommy," Billy said as Tommy barely nodded as he cradled Chris in his arms. He was actually more worried about the fact that she had involuntarily morphed and what that was now doing to her body. "The fact that her powers morphed her is what saved her."

"That scares me. You know that isn't supposed to happen," Tommy said as Billy finished and then took a step away so that Tommy could pull his chair over and sit down.

"Maddox," Madeline murmured as she rushed over to his side and the veteran rangers looked over at her with a sympathetic gaze, but then looked away. They were sure that he was going to wake up in the next few minutes. Kim, on the other hand, they had no clue about. They knew that she had not lost that much blood, but they also knew that her powers must have thrown her for a loop.

"What happened?" Maddox asked as he woke up and Madeline let out a sigh of relief, while Tommy looked up and managed a smile. He was happy that Maddox was all right, but he could not find it in himself to be exactly ecstatic until Kim woke up as well.

"It seems that you met your match," Madeline said with a smile as Maddox suddenly remembered that he had not assured that Kimberly had gotten back her and jerked up and looked around, only to find her lying next to him.

"I guess that you are going to send us home, right?" Sam asked as Tommy nodded his head yes and Sam nodded that he understood. They didn't need anyone else here if they could help it.

"But I'm going to keep Maddox here for a little while, I want to make sure that nothing else is wrong," Billy said as Maddox nodded and Billy nodded for him to follow him into another chamber. They all knew that Tommy just wanted to be with Kimberly.

"I'll take Chris to your parent's Tommy," Trini said as she gently lifted this sleeping baby from his father's arms and Tommy barely nodded. "She'll wake up sooner or later Tommy, don't worry about her."

"You know that I will, Trini," Tommy said as Trini nodded, but like all the others, she just wanted to try to make things better on him. They all knew that Tommy was killing himself for allowing their fight to go on this long and know that she could have died with them still fighting.

"Just try not to, please," Trini said as she left and then others soon followed her head as Tommy rested his head on Kim's stomach and gently brushed her hair away from her face.

"What have I done this time?" Tommy murmured as he heard the doors scrape closed and he continued to caress her cheek, in hope that she would respond to his touch, but she didn't move a single muscle. "I should have never fought with you this long. We should have…you know that I love you…I never meant to hurt you like this…"

"Tommy…" Kimberly whispered as she looked down at her stomach and found him lying there, staring up at her. "What happened?"

"Kim…" Tommy murmured as he sat up and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. "I'm so sorry…I never thought that…"

"It's all right Tommy, I am just as much at fault as you are for all of this," Kim said as she rested against him, feeling very stiff and rather tired. "What happened to me?"

"It seems that Halindon was able to slash you. Other than the fact that your powers morphed you, nothing else happened," Tommy said as Kim just stared at him.

"How in the world…" Kim trailed off as Tommy shrugged, he was not sure how in the world she had managed it, but her powers had decided to come and protect her when she needed it the most.

"None of us are sure about that, but we'll do some tests to figure out why it happened later," Tommy said as he leaned back enough to where he could kiss her and she immediately turned up her face towards his.

"I'm so sorry…" Kim whispered as she closed her eyes and rested against him.

"So am I," Tommy whispered in return as he faintly heard a door being pulled closed and just shook his head. He had not thought that the others would be this desperate to see if they two of them would make amends, but he knew that it had to be rough on all of them to see the two of them at each other's throats. The two of them were the power couple of the power rangers and it definitely made the others doubt if they would make it while the two of them fought. They had always managed to do that whenever something went wrong in their relationship.

------------------

"So they did get back to normal?" Fred asked as Madeline nodded her head yes.

"But we learned that day that Halindon was not going to be a breeze to fight. It took a veteran ranger calling on her former powers to get Maddox and herself out of there alive. None of us are that skilled, even if we wish that we are. We couldn't do that now, even if we tried and believe me there have been times when we have all wished that we were able to do just that," Sam said as the others nodded in agreement and Fred just nodded as he turned off the recorder and they then stood to exit the room. They were only a week into these sessions and he was sure that there were going to be many more weeks to come and he wondered if the government would eventually give up on the fact that they wanted to prosecute the rangers and just allow them to live. That seemed to be something that they were not able to do since they were teenagers and now it was time to let them have that, but he didn't have a choice about any of this, he had to do all of it.


	15. Escalating Problems

"Yesterday was rough," Madeline murmured as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and looked over at Maddox.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad. Do you think that there is any chance we can leave out some of the stuff that happened in the few weeks following that incident?" Maddox asked as Madeline shook her head no. She knew that she did not want to talk about what happened next, but she knew that they had to, in order to keep their mentors from becoming bigger targets. Things were starting to get to a very dangerous stage and although they knew that they needed to protect themselves, they were more worried about what might possibly come down on their mentors. There was just something in the air that made them that much more cautious.

"We have to save them, Maddox. I'm not exactly sure why we were brought here, but I can hazard a guess and that guess does not make me feel comfortable. I'm worried that they are going to go after them and I don't want that to happen. They've done too much to be treated like that now," Madeline said as Maddox walked over and wrapped his arms around her.

"Then we just have to make sure that it doesn't happen," Maddox said as Madeline nodded her head and she let out a long sigh. The days were starting to wear at her and she knew that she just couldn't take this much longer. It was draining to recall her ranger experiences and not know why they were having to do this. They had been told that they would be left alone once it was over with, but barely a year after the fact, they were being called in for this sort of mess. "I don't like doing this anymore than you do."

"I just wish that we could talk to them about what's going on. They might be able to help us with what we should and shouldn't say to the government. They know how to cover their asses much better than we do," Madeline said as Maddox nodded his head in agreement, as he let her go and handed her, her purse.

"We better get going, the others will be waiting for us," Maddox said as they walked out of their hotel room and went to start another day of recalling their life as rangers.

"I just need some aspirin," BethAnn said as Garrett gave her a suspicious look. She rarely asked for any sort of medicine, but right now she was practically begging for it. "I just haven't had such a great week, Garrett."

"Sorry," Garret said as he handed her the aspirin that she had requested and just shook his head. He had not had to deal with her being in a bad mood in a very long time and he hoped this soon would pass.

"Now that you have showed up, we can get going," Sam said as Maddox and Madeline walked up to the other three. "You know, it would be nice to call when you are going to be late."

"Don't even start, Sam," Madeline said as she walked out through the revolving door with Maddox right behind her.

---------------

"So, what's next?" Fred asked, as he had learned that it was best to not try to coax them into saying anything. They would eventually get around to everything in their own time.

"The amped up training," Madeline said as Fred merely nodded, thinking that they were going to surely have to learn more after the previous incident that they had explained. He was sure that the veteran rangers realized that they lacked a certain amount of expertise, but he didn't know the amount of involvement that they were allowed to have in the training.

"They knew that we were not ready to directly face Halindon, but since Maddox was forced to jump into that position, they wanted to prepare the rest of us in case we had to do the same thing some day," Sam said as Madeline and Maddox nodded. Although he had suffered nothing more than a mild concussion, it was still much more than anything that they wanted to face until the last battle that they would fight in, when everything might have to be sacrificed.

"So, let me guess that we are going into the endless depths of ranger training," Fred said as Madeline nodded her head yes, that was the closest thing to the truth that they could find right now.

----------------

"I've never been happier to see you in a pink suit," Tommy muttered as Kim smiled up at him. They had all known that their powers had not been completely diminished over the years of fighting, but they never expected them to pull a stunt like Kimberly's had yesterday. The most that they thought would happen is that they would get a boost of energy, none of them ever thought that they would have a full conversion of their powers.

"I've never been happier for it to actually show up, but that still doesn't explain why it happened. That was not supposed to happen Tommy. We both know that," Kim said as she tried to stretch out and her right side pulled.

"Easy, Dr. Sealnon is not going to like to see that some more stitches have been added to his handy work," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head. He was definitely right about that one. Dr. Sealnon had made it perfectly clear that she not do much more than walk around for the next few weeks and now she had gone and gotten herself captured. She was sure that that was much more than the amount of activity that he thought was safe for her to attempt right now.

"I still think that you should take her in. There may be more damage done than just an external cut," Billy said as Kim smiled over at him. They had sent the younger rangers home, except for Maddox, who they decided needed to just stay overnight.

"Billy, if it was more than an external cut, I'd be passed out right now. We all know that, we're not new to the game; we've been through it all before, we know better about all of this. There is no need to call more attention to what happened today," Kim said as Tommy nodded his head in agreement.

"How's Kat?" Tommy asked as the last time that he had had a long conversation with Billy it had involved him saying several phrases that he would have sworn were not in Billy's vocabulary until then.

"The morning sickness hasn't gotten any better, but now it's only in the morning, so I can be thankful for something," Billy said as Tommy smiled and Kim reached over and placed her arm around Tommy.

"I can remember the day that you were thankful for that," Kim said as Tommy nodded his head in agreement. The all day sickness had been almost more than he could take, considering everything else that they had going on, but he was somehow able to make it through those months.

"I can remember the day when it started back up," Jason said as Kim looked over at him and then looked down. "Kim, none of us blame you for what happened. There was nothing that you could have done to stop Halindon then or now. He's too powerful and unless we manage to train them quickly, he's likely to be too much for them as well."

"Yeah, we've got to figure out something, quickly," Tommy said as Kim nodded as she looked around the room.

"Where's Chris?" Kim asked looking up at Tommy as he looked down at the ground in deep thought.

"Trini took him to my parents," Tommy said as Kim barely nodded. She was not sure that she felt good about leaving Chris with his parents, but she was almost certain that he was safer there than he was with the two of them right now.

"What are we going to do?" Kim asked as she covered her face and leaned forward and propped her elbows on her knees.

"About our situation or about the rangers?" Tommy asked, so that he would not say the incorrect answer and find himself back in the dog house after just getting out of it.

"Both," Kim said as he looked around at the others. They had some of the answers, but there were some answers that he was only capable of at this point. "I can't go through another day like today, I don't think that my body will be able to take it until I am able to heal."

"I don't think that my heart will be able to take it," Tommy said as he looked around and then let out a long sigh. What he was about to say was something that he knew the other rangers would not want to do, but they no longer had a choice. Many of their choices had just been taken out of their hands. "We've got to amp up their training; they don't know nearly enough to face Halindon face on and it's going to happen more now that it has happened the first time. That's just the way that it is with him. He knows that the only ones that are going to even get close to his skill level are those of us that are not supposed to fight. He's going to try to pull more morphing out of us and we can't let that happen."

"I know," Kim said as Tommy looked down at her. "I didn't even consciously think of morphing, my body just did it and I'm sure that the rest of you would do the same if you are put in the same situation. We have to be careful to not get backed into a corner, I don't know what our powers would do if we had to use them for a prolonged period of time."

"Sorry, but when are you going to find time to do all of this?" Billy asked as Tommy paced around for a few moments before turning to Billy with a smile.

"All the hours that they were spending here monitoring the hospital are no longer needed. I still want someone here at all times in case something happens, but I think we could work it out to where they were assigned specific days of the week to be here and the other two could actually come and spar. I know that BethAnn and Garrett have school, but when they are done, they are going to have to come in too. There is no telling who he might go after next," Tommy said as Billy nodded.

"Well, if none of you mind, I think that I might need to be getting home to my wife. She's not exactly thrilled with me right now," Billy said as Tommy nodded that he could go and Kim looked back up at him. She was glad that he was at least doing everything he could to keep Billy from becoming a permanent party member of theirs.

"Do you think that is going to be enough?" Jason asked as Tommy just shook his head.

"It's all we have, I'm going to talk with Hayley and see what sort of technology that she can help Billy come up with, but I don't really know what else we can do. They just don't have the fighting skills that they need right now to face someone that has been at this for years, hell we wouldn't have them if we hadn't faced so many different foes," Tommy said as Jason nodded. There were many things that they realized about themselves now that they had not been able to realize earlier. "We're just going to have to go with what we know has worked in the past and this was the only thing that I was able to do to help the Dino Rangers realize what they needed to do."

"Yeah, but they were different Tommy, they didn't have powers that belonged to someone else first, our powers are not as compatible with them as they were with us," Kim pointed out as Tommy merely nodded.

"But we weren't meant to keep those powers, we all know that there is a set out there that we will have to eventually take to propel us to where we can get rid of the power source that drives beings to find the earth, but until that day I don't think we need to see powers again," Tommy said as Kim nodded.

"Guys, why don't you just head home?" Trini suggested as Kim looked over at her and gave her a grateful smile.

"We still need to hash some things out," Tommy said as Kim looked over at him and he then gave her a weak smile. "Are we going to go back home or are we going to try to find a safe place to stay?"

"We have to stay here now…I don't think that we have a choice about that," Kim said as Tommy nodded, although he could see that it was killing her to concede that they could no longer live in their home. "But I do want to go home as soon as we can…"

"I know," Tommy whispered as he leaned down and wrapped his arms around her. "I'll do what I can about that as well."

"Thank you," Kim whispered as she reached up and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

------------

"Come on Maddox, you've got to be kidding," Madeline said as Maddox had explained everything that he had overheard.

"I'm not kidding, Maddie, we are going to be put through hell the next few weeks just to see if we are up to their standards," Maddox said as Madeline let out a long sigh. It took all that she could muster to not scream at him in frustration. She did not need this sort of news, especially considering what had happened to him today.

"Have you ever really had to spar with Tommy?" Madeline asked as Maddox shook his head no and Madeline took a step away so that she could try to explain it all to him. She was not sure that she could to this without shocking him, but she had to try.

"Is it that bad?" Maddox asked, as he had actually been looking forward to seeing exactly what Tommy could do. The little bit that he had seen let him know that Tommy was a formidable fighter, but he didn't think that he would face that kind of fighting under controlled circumstances.

"I just have a feeling that everything that Tommy has ever learned while fighting is about to be divulged on us. He is not someone that I would want to mess with if I met him out on the streets and I think that is something that Halindon expects. He expects us to be up to Tommy's level of fighting, but we aren't quite there yet and I don't know if we will ever get there," Madeline said as Maddox looked over at her.

"We're not going to be there in a couple of weeks of hard practice either," Maddox pointed out as Madeline nodded her head in agreement.

"I don't think that is going to be Tommy's point either. I think that he knows that we are all going to be tough people to have to go up against if he can just train us a little bit, I know that if they really work with us, we'll get to where we need to be to be able to function like they did when they were rangers. You know that they actually cared about each other, so he is going to try to instill that in us, with a lot of other things," Madeline said as Maddox barely nodded as she wrapped her arms around him. "Sorry, you still have a headache, don't you?"

"Just a small one," Maddox lied as Madeline slowly let him go.

"Get some rest and don't worry about what you heard. They kept you here so that you would be able to rest and you haven't done much of that," Madeline said as she looked up at him. "I am sure that tomorrow everything will be fine and they'll have calmed down some from their ranting."

"You didn't hear them, Maddie," Maddox said as Madeline gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"You're right, I didn't and I'm sure that they didn't want to bother you with everything that they were talking about, since you were supposed to be asleep," Madeline pointed out as Maddox nodded. "Rest and we'll see about everything in the morning."

"Thanks for coming," Maddox said as Madeline gave him a kiss on the cheek and then took a step away.

"It's no problem, call me if you need anything else," Madeline said as she teleported away and Maddox let out a long sigh. He had been unable to impress upon her exactly how serious he thought that all of this was and he was sure that she would find out everything in the morning when the others told her the truth. He just wanted to save her from the harsh reality of what was about to happen to them. He was sure that everything that Tommy had said had been said with the distinct purpose of making sure that the others knew just how serious all of this was to him. It was definitely going to be a huge problem just to find the time to do what they so desperately needed to do, but he knew that the older rangers would not let them down. They knew what was at stake better than anyone else and if people were skeptics of that fact, then they were going to have to take a good long look at their legacy. The rangers had done more than anyone else to protect the earth and sadly enough they were only teens when most of it was accomplished and now it was time to make the new rangers into one of them, one of the true rangers that would fight until the end and little did they know just how much they would need that in the weeks to come.

-----------------

"So, we'll get into the training regime after lunch?" Fred asked as Madeline nodded that that was their plan and he just grinned in return. He knew that he was going to have a hard time saying anything against the rangers, after everything that he had heard from Madeline and the others over the past several days and this was not even the part that they really wanted him to find out. They wanted to find out how they could guarantee that the earth would no longer need any sort of protection. They had not told the government how it had happened but they had told them that everything was over, they would never need rangers again and that was something that they definitely had to question. It seemed to be the most unrealistic thing in the world for them.


	16. Back Up

"Kim…" Tommy murmured as he rolled over and felt for his wife, trying not to open his eyes. He desperately wanted a few more precious minutes of sleep, but he was never able to sleep when she moved away from him. He just wondered what it was to cause it tonight. "Kim…"

"I'm in the nursery, Tommy," Kim said as she heard the bed creak and knew that Tommy would soon arrive in the nursery as well. "Someone couldn't sleep any more."

"Well, we did put him to sleep early last night, Kim," Tommy said as Chris reached for Tommy, who quickly took him out of Kimberly's arms. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm all right, I just can't seem to shake this cold," Kim said as she turned away from the two of them and coughed as he gave her a sympathetic look. She had been under the weather for the last few weeks, but he knew that this was just usually the time of year when Kim got sick. 

"You want me to take him for the day so that you can rest?" Tommy asked as Kim shook her head no. 

"You have school today Tommy and I can't ask you to miss out on that. I'm up to running the dojo as long as you can promise me that you'll be there in time for the babies this afternoon," Kim said as she took Chris back from him and he gave her a hug. 

"I'll be there," Tommy said with a smile as she let out a contented sigh and walked over to the dresser to pull out some clothes for Chris. 

"Whoa," Madeline said as she walked into the now familiar interrogation room and saw several new government officials lounging around, looking overly serious and out of place. She knew that she had now said something that had peaked their interest; she just hoped that they would be pacified to do the rest of this without having to bring the veterans in. Their wealth of information was about to run out. "Did we miss something? Like a new monster?"

"We certainly hope that there are no new monsters," an official stated as Madeline looked over at him and gave him a hard look. Something about the man made her insides squirm with disgust. 

"You'd never know with this bunch of rangers," another official stated as Maddox gave him a thorough look and shook his head. 

"You are not going to get very far with us by talking bull shit about the rangers that trained us. We all know good and damn well why we were brought here to deal with this bull shit. Now, I'm sorry, but the rangers that I know didn't do anything wrong, other than follow a plan that pissed you off and I'm so sorry about that. It really is a shame that they helped us save the earth," Maddox said as Madeline nodded her head in agreement. 

"The rangers spent government money that we can not account for," the first official said as Madeline just shook her head. 

"If you were worried about money you would be checking their finances, not hounding all of us about facts that have absolutely nothing to do with that," Madeline pointed out as he looked up at her, surprised that she would say such a thing. It was obvious to her that they had forgotten that many of these rangers were military and had been around government practices enough to sense when there was an ulterior motive. "You learn a lot while you are a ranger, one of those things being to stand up for yourself and those that you care about. You are not going to hurt the rangers, if it's the last thing I do, you won't do a damn thing to them."

"Funny you should say that," the second official said as they turned on the video screen and it showed Kimberly playing with Chris in his nursery while Tommy was getting ready for work just a room away. "We could have them brought here, tomorrow and no one would question why."

"They haven't done a damn thing but save your sorry asses from evil for the past decade and this is how you want to repay them?" Sam asked as he rose from his chair and strode towards them. "You bring them here and I swear to you that the least you will have to worry about it what we'll do to you. You ever wonder why your higher ups didn't bring them here, instead of us?" 

"It did cross my mind," Fred said as Sam smiled over at him, glad that he was willing to help him with his ranting tirade. Truth be known, Fred had developed a soft spot for the rangers and he was not going to give his colleagues an easy time if they tried to abuse these rangers. 

"Your bosses are scared shitless to face the original rangers, hell they are even scared to face us considering the fact that they sent you here to badger us about not giving up enough information on the rangers. Well, I'm sorry, but those rangers have done a hell of a lot and there is a hell of a lot for us to tell. We'll get to whatever they think is the bloody point soon enough, but in the mean time get off our asses or we might just clam up and not say anything for a few weeks," Sam said, rather calmly, as the officials stared at the five young adults standing in front of them, each with a different degree of hatred evident in their features. They did not appreciate what was being done to their mentors and they were sure to give them hell for it if they could manage. 

"Carry on," the first official said as he hurriedly left the room and Madeline had to suppress a laugh, along with the rest of them as they waited to hear the doors swing shut. 

"You know, I think they rubbed off on you more than you thought," Fred said as they looked over at him. "They were thinking about bringing them here, separating them from their families and seeing what they could possibly get out of them. Someone higher up told them that they had a snowball's chance in hell of getting them to talk, so the next best thing they could do was bring all of you in."

"Nice to know that we weren't picked first," Madeline said with a smile as Fred barely nodded. 

"I can understand if you want to leave and just come back tomorrow," Fred offered as they all shook their heads. 

"You seem to forget that we have families back home too and although it is not nearly as bad as all of them, we know that the longer we stretch this out, the more likely it is that we won't get out of there by Thanksgiving," Maddox said as Fred nodded and then walked over to his recorder. 

"It looks like it is Power rangers, take…" Fred said as he pressed record and the rangers looked at each other. They knew it was bad, considering the fact that he had lost count completely of what day they were on of being here. 

"Hey guys, I'm glad that you could make it," Tommy said as Maddox, Madeline, and Sam walked into the dojo, semi-surprised that they were meeting here instead of their normal hideout. They thought that it had to be written somewhere that rangers only associate with each other in private, but now they were being proved wrong. "We've got a lot of things to talk about."

"What sort of things?" Sam asked as Maddox just shook his head as Madeline stared up at him. She had not thought that he was serious about what he had said last night. 

"Your training, the new things you are going to be required to do, how much we really expect of you…" Tommy trailed off as he looked around and them and smiled when he saw that none of this was new to Maddox. "It looks like you've already learned to listen in when you can manage it."

"I only did it because I really couldn't rest," Maddox said as Tommy shook his head as he laughed. 

"You don't have to lie to me. There are more times than I can count that I listened in to Zordon when I probably shouldn't have and there were times that he knew that I did it as well, but we all learned from it, somehow," Tommy said as Maddox just stared at him. He had expected to be scolded like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar, but to hear from Tommy that he had expected it was definitely better than he ever imagined. "I wanted to do this in an open place, although my classes won't be here for a couple more hours, I needed some time away from the Command Center and you all will need that eventually."

"I think that living there would make me want to get away from it more," Madeline said as Tommy barely nodded his head. "How is Kim taking that?"

"She doesn't want to risk anything else happening, especially to Chris, so she's adjusting," Tommy said as Madeline nodded. She knew that it had been hard on the two of them to go through everything that they were going through and still manage to find time to work with them and keep their relationship afloat. "And I was going to drag her there if she didn't consent to it on her own. I can't risk them."

"But that's not what you wanted to talk to us about," Sam said as Tommy nodded his head in agreement. 

"I wanted to talk to you about the fact that you are not well enough prepared to deal with the vinons, much less Halindon himself," Tommy said, bluntly as they looked at him. They could not believe that he was being so blunt about the situation, they thought that he might wish to sugar coat it some. "I'm not saying that you can't get there, because that's not the truth. The truth of the matter is that you need more time than I am afraid that we have right now."

"Come on, he's not going to go on capturing and hunting you, you're just his current target," Maddox said as Tommy shook his head. He wished that it was all that simple, but it really wasn't. It seemed that once a being targeted him, they did not quit until they were defeated and the pattern of that activity just seemed to get worse and worse as the years went by. 

"As much as I want to think that that is exactly what will happen, I don't think that it will. You don't know about a lot of things that we have gone through, you don't know why Halindon holds such a grudge against all of us," Tommy said as the three of them gave him a critical look and he let out a sigh. "I guess you want to know why, don't you?"

"It'd be nice, considering that he seems to think that your family is the best people to take hostage," Sam said as Tommy merely nodded his head in agreement. 

"He's not like Mesogogg, who was actually part human, he's more like Zedd or Rita, actually he is one of their peons that we never knew about. He stayed in a different galaxy for the majority of their reign and only found out a few years ago that they had been destroyed. He directly blames the first rangers, which, of course, include myself and Kim. However the first time that he attacked, he thought that going after Jason and Trini would be a lot of fun, Kim and I were still rangers at the time, so we came to help them out. That day we set him back by a couple of years, he had to regroup and think what would be the best way to come at us after we gave him a pretty honest lashing. When he came back, Kim was pregnant and we were looking for all of you-he decided at that moment to take his life in his own hands and hope that he could take us on and so far he's had it pretty easy," Tommy said as Maddox and Madeline exchanged a glance. They all remembered what Tommy had done when he saw him last. 

"You're the only one that can fight him," Maddox said as Tommy shook his head no. "Then why can't we handle him?"

"You still don't know your powers and where they will take you. When we brought those powers back, we made sure that we had an idea of what they could do and it should be more than enough to give Halindon a good ass whooping, but that hasn't happened. Every time, we've had to come to the rescue and although we're thankful that we can, we know that we can't keep doing that. It's too dangerous for us to continue it without some sort of powers," Tommy said as Maddox gave him a curious look, remembering another remark from the previous night. 

"What about the powers that you are destined to get?" Maddox asked as Tommy looked over at him and let out a long, disgruntled sigh. 

"That is just a legend, we're not sure if it will actually happen and even if it does, there is no guarantee who will be on the ranger team," Tommy said as they looked over at him. 

"I thought that the government didn't want you playing in the ranger sandbox anymore," Madeline said as Tommy smiled over at her. 

"They don't want us playing in it, but with all the things that keep coming after us, we don't have much of a choice about getting involved, now do we?" Tommy asked, pointedly, as they nodded their heads in agreement. "But this isn't what I really need to work on with you, because speculating whether or not we will become rangers again does not help you in your current situation."

"So, where do we begin?" Sam asked as Tommy gave him an appreciative nod and walked them over to the back corner of the wide open dojo. 

"We begin with all of you…fighting me," Tommy said as they looked over at him as he began pulling off his shirt and grabbed a wife beater and slipped it on instead, as they stared at him. 

"Fighting you? Come on, you are no where near a match for Halindon," Sam said as Tommy looked over at him and raised his eyebrows. He knew that Sam was forgetting the day that Tommy had fought Halindon into retreat, without any real powers to his name. 

"If there is a match for Halindon, I'm it, but as you can see, I'm not the one with powers, so I have to teach you how to beat me, then you might have a chance to beat him," Tommy said as he slung Sam into a wall and dropkicked Madeline before roundhouse kicking Maddox, which left all of them sprawled on the floor. "He's not going to give you any warning."

"You pack one hell of a punch," Maddox said as he pushed himself to his feet, as the other two did the same as they surrounded Tommy, waiting for his next attack. 

"Okay, the next thing, isn't to wait for me," Tommy said as he took Madeline's feet out from under her and then jumped to avoid the blow that Maddox had headed for him and then flipped over their heads and reached for the nearest weapon he had on display. Maddox and Sam exchanged a glance before they reached for the nearest objects that they could find to defend themselves, but it did not do much good as Tommy rounded on them before they even had a chance to think about what they were doing. "You have to learn to do, not think."

"Obviously you had this planned out," Sam said as Tommy shook his head no as he continued to back them into a corner, while being aware that Madeline had gotten to her feet as well and he knew that she would not wait forever to give him some pay back. 

"No, I just used the fact that you trust me to my advantage. I know that you don't trust Halindon, but you have to remember that he will use the element of surprise, lure you into a trap…" Tommy said as he turned to block Madeline's blow and gave her a smile as she was slung away yet again. "…then turn everything that you believe in on you. It wouldn't be the first time that some being used our fears to get back at us."

"But you don't fight like this," Maddox said as Tommy nodded his head that that was usually the case, but today it wasn't. 

"Do you honestly think that Halindon will give you an easy time, because if you do, then I've got a lot more to teach you than I thought," Tommy said as Sam aimed a blow at his head, but he managed to block it at the last minute. 

"Is it even possible to defeat you?" Sam asked as Tommy shrugged his shoulders. There had been times in the past when the monsters had a very hard time with him, but that was years ago, when he was a teenager. 

"Fun!" Jason exclaimed as he walked in and saw the three rangers swarming Tommy, but not doing much good in actually trying to defeat him. "Can I give them some pointers?"

"If you want," Tommy said as he rounded on them again and they all scattered as he walked over to Jason. 

"You weren't joking about picking up their training. Are you using your sixth degree stuff or the seventh degree that you are working on?" Jason asked as Tommy shrugged his shoulders, he was not sure what he was using, but it was obviously something that the rangers had never encountered before. 

"It's good to see you here," Tommy said as Jason greeted him with a handshake. 

"It looks like they need someone to coach them on how to fight you," Jason said as Tommy nodded and then motioned for the rangers to follow Jason. He knew that Jason was going to be their moral support in the very unstable world of fighting Tommy. 

"Why weren't we warned that he could fight like that?" Sam asked as he rubbed the back of his neck and Jason looked over at Tommy who was smiling over at them. He knew exactly what they were likely to be complaining about. 

"Well, none of us know, except maybe him exactly how good Halindon is and if he is pulling out those kinds of moves on you, then I think that you need to learn how to react to them," Jason said as they looked over at him. "Be glad that we're not tag teaming. Halindon, unlike other evils, likes to work alone, so be thankful for that, even if you are not thankful for anything else. Rita and Zedd were worse than anything else that we ever faced and they liked to run off each other, but they rarely ever fought us, they liked to send their helpers to do all the dirty work."

"Yeah, remember that we've had the history lesson, we don't need anymore of that," Sam said as Jason just looked over at him with a look of disgust and Sam couldn't help but take a step away from him and he came within Tommy's reach again. 

"Enough teaching, Jase," Tommy said as Jason looked over at him in shock and he just smiled. He knew that Jason was trying to prepare them, but they were no where near as prepared as they needed to be to face Halindon, much less Tommy, who all of the former rangers realized was a much better fighter, he just wouldn't sink to the level of Halindon and play dirty. 

"Come on, he was just getting to what we need to know," Sam countered as Tommy smiled and then began backing him into a corner and Jason moved out of the way in order to avoid the tangle that he knew was coming. 

"He should have talked to you quicker, before you were stupid enough to get back into my range," Tommy said as Sam cringed as another strong blow was made to his side and he felt Maddox catch him, before Madeline turned on Tommy. The two of them might not like Sam, but they had to learn to work with him now or they would never be able to make any sort of headway on fighting Tommy. 

"Let me help you," Jason said as he jumped into the mix and watched as the younger rangers began to try to work as a group for the first time ever, afraid to have to go up against the two of them, when Jason was actually going to try to help them against Tommy. 

"Good move," Tommy muttered as they continued to work together to combat Tommy, but he noticed that they were not nearly as careful about watching each others back as they should be and took full advantage of it. 

"You…are…impossible," Madeline muttered as she looked up from her place at the bottom of the pile and Tommy smiled, as the other two rolled off so that they could just lie in peace. 

"You aren't as bad as you think that you are," Tommy said as he reached down to pull Maddox up and he just shook his head. 

"I need to just stay on the floor for a little while," Maddox said as he closed his eyes and Madeline let out a long sigh as Maddox reached over and stroked down her hair. 

"The two of you are heavy," Madeline murmured as Tommy and Jason laughed, as Tommy pulled back on his top and walked over to the front desk. 

"You've got to be kidding me that you are walking away," Sam said as he looked over at Tommy, who merely nodded. 

"I don't want to kill the three of you today. You are going to be sore as hell from just that," Tommy said as Madeline looked back at him and she grabbed the stick that they had disregarded and chunked it at Tommy, but missed him by a few inches.\

"That is rough," Fred said as Madeline nodded. He was sure that they had absolutely no idea what it was like, it had been harder than almost anything else that they had ever done. 

"Tommy is a rough person to battle. None of them ever saw what he put us through and for every day that we did that, we were stronger in battle, we were so much more ready for something that we didn't know would hit us…" Madeline trailed off as several people looked at her. There was something that she had been about to reveal, but she stopped herself. "That's why they didn't know…that's why we're…"

"Maddie, you aren't making any sense, honey," Maddox said as she looked over at him and he reached over and put his arm around her. 

"I don't think that I have to…I think that it's time we call the rangers," Madeline said as the other four looked at her as if she had lost her mind. "It's time that they hear the real story that they want. They want to know how Halindon was defeated, by rangers that they had never seen before. We gave them a tidbit yesterday and they jumped, they came too soon thinking that they'd be able to pressure it out of us and we don't know that answer, only they do."


	17. Wiser Souls

"What the hell?" Tommy muttered as he heard someone beating on the front door and looked over at the alarm clock to see that it was two o'clock in the morning. He could not remember this ever happening before when the answer on the other side of the door was something he actually wanted to hear about. His years as a ranger came flooding back, but that had all been put behind them. They had made sure of that the last time that they dealt with the rangers.

"What's going on?" Kim asked as Tommy shrugged his shoulders and got out of bed and went down stairs and slung open the door, to only be blinded by a flashlight.

"Dr. Thomas Oliver?" a voice asked as Tommy held his hand in front of his eyes so that he could attempt to figure out who was standing on his front porch, beating on his door and waking up his wife, as well as his child now, at this time of night.

"Who the hell are you and why the hell are you here?" Tommy asked as the man shoved his way into Tommy's home, but Tommy grabbed him by the arm and slung him back through the door. No one entered his home like that unless they were certain that they wanted to die. "You didn't answer my questions and I might be half awake but unless I see a warrant, I'll kick your ass from here to Timbuktu, because my son is upstairs crying right now because of you."

"Dr. Oliver, I am Special Agent Flowers, I have been sent here to collect you and your wife. Your child will be taken to your parent's home immediately. You are needed elsewhere," Special Agent Flowers said as Tommy shook his head and looked at the man in confusion.

"What is going on?" Tommy asked as he flicked on the lights and motioned for the man to come inside.

"The Elemental force has requested that the top level members of the PANEL come to Washington D.C., immediately," Special Agent Flowers said as Tommy just shook his head and looked up the stairs in time to see Kimberly start down the stairs with Chris in her arms.

"Tommy, what's wrong?" Kim asked as Chris let out another cry and she walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle from the refrigerator.

"We've been summoned to D.C.," Tommy said as Kim stared at him in complete confusion. "It seems that the rangers need us."

"We let them go, they can do this alone," Kim stated as Tommy reached over and gently took Chris from her arms.

"No, it seems that they do not know the answers that the government is looking for and that you are the only people that might be able to answer what they are asking for," Special Agent Flowers said as Tommy just shook his head in disgust as Kim turned and walked up the stairs. "Where are you going?"

"To pack, for us and Chris," Kim said as Special Agent Flowers held up his hand and she realized something was wrong.

"You only need to pack for yourself, not the child," Special Agent Flowers said as Kim watched Tommy look down at the floor and she just shook her head. He had the feeling that Kimberly's wrath would be so much worse than his own, so he was more than willing to let her vent.

"I am not going to just leave my child here without anyone to look after him!" Kim yelled as Special Agent Flowers looked over at Tommy, expecting some help.

"He will be with his parents, he will be perfectly safe," Special Agent Flowers said as Kim's eyes squinted as she walked towards him and pressed her index finger into his chest.

"Our child is coming with us, don't fuck with me. I can kick your ass from here to Timbuktu and I will not second guess it," Kim said as Special Agent Flowers laughed and Tommy quickly grabbed Kimberly's arm as he knew that Kim was deadly serious. This man did not realize exactly what danger he had put himself in when he had stepped into a rangers' house and insulted them.

"You still packing some hidden powers?" Special Agent Flowers asked, sarcastically, as Kim struggled to get out of Tommy's grasp and he only tightened his grasp on her as Chris wound his hand into Kimberly's hair as well. "You will leave your child here with his parents."

"You want information from me…your ass better let me take my baby, because from where I am standing, you need something from me and you aren't offering me anything, as I see it, so you won't get shit from me," Kim said as Special Agent Flowers felt something radiating off her and saw the flash in her eyes as well as Tommy's.

"I will allow you to bring your child," Special Agent Flowers said as Kim took a step back and nodded.

"You don't mess with rangers, you should have learned that since the last time that you dropped in here," Kim said as Tommy smiled as she tried to take a step away from him, but Chris's fist would not let go of her hair. "Disentangle me, sweetie."

"She is still as feisty as ever," Special Agent Flowers said as Tommy nodded.

"You almost got your ass kicked twice tonight; the third time will be the charm. I promise that you say something wrong again and you'll be meeting the wall as your best friend," Tommy said, seriously, as Agent Flowers looked over at him. He knew that the rangers were all talk and no action, it was what they had always been. "You have messed with the wrong people, I wouldn't suggest screwing with us anymore."

"You rangers are all alike," Special Agent Flowers said as Tommy placed Chris on the couch and glared at the federal agent.

"Yes and so are all of the investigators that I have met since they pulled me into this shit. You don't like that you weren't able to find us until they backed one of your own into a corner and he admitted that he was a ranger and gave up names. If you had never done that to Billy, we would still be free from all of this, so I think that you owe us at least a thank you for saving your asses so many times. Now, you keep on making smart comments and there's no telling what will happen to you when you are surrounded by all the rangers that you are calling in," Tommy said as Special Agent Flowers laughed and Tommy then pegged him to the door, as another agent burst in and grabbed Tommy.

"You are a danger to society," Special Agent Flowers laughed as he smoothed out his shirt and walked back towards the door. "I'll be seeing you in Washington, Tommy."

"Maddie, they are going to kill you," Maddox said as he laid down next to her in bed and she looked over at him and just shook her head.

"I didn't have a choice, Maddox. The information that they want has nothing to do with us and everything to do with them and it's something that we know nothing about," Madeline said as he looked over at her in the dark, questioning exactly what she had figured out. "The government wants to know how in the world they can guarantee that there is never going to be a need for rangers again and even we don't know that the answer to that. They are the only ones that can tell them the truth about that."

"But the conversation that we talked about…" Maddox trailed off as Madeline nodded.

"Is enough to make them suspect that we know more than we are saying but, the fact is, we don't know anything about why they can guarantee that. They are going to have to explain it themselves, even if that is something that we don't like thinking about," Madeline said as Maddox just shook his head in the dark.

"I still don't know if we should go this far, maybe we should just try to talk them out of this information," Maddox said as Madeline gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"It's a little bit too late for that, they're getting them now and I'm sure that they aren't too happy with us right now," Madeline said as she felt Maddox pull her closer and she settled against him.

"I guess we'll see tomorrow morning," Maddox whispered before drifting off to sleep, leaving Madeline to think in the dark. They had all stayed out late tonight, hoping to hear something about what was going on with the rangers, but had given up at two in the morning, when they knew that they were not going to be contacted, although they seemed to matter much more than any of the other officials that they had dealing with this situation.

Morning came earlier than all of them could remember it coming in ages. They had all been drained from everything that they went through yesterday, but now they had a full day ahead of them that they were sure had more unexpected twists and turns. Their mentors were coming here and they were very grateful to see them, but other than that, they knew that they were going to be in more trouble than they could even imagine. They were sure that their mentors were not taking this well and fighting all of it as much as they could.

"I'm going to kill them," Kim muttered as Tommy smiled down at her and pulled her close into his side.

"It's going to be fine, Kim," Tommy said as she looked up at him and glared. It had been a long time since they had been woken up like this and the last time that it happened, it changed their lives forever and he did not want for that to happen again. He was not sure if he would be able to take that happening again, considering everything that had changed since that day.

"Easy for you to say," Jason muttered as Tommy looked over at him and let out a sigh. He agreed with Jason that things were not right, but there was not much that he could do about it. Everything was such a problem that for them to even have to think about more than a few things was difficult.

"Hey…" Madeline murmured as she walked up to the former rangers and they looked at her with looks that seemed to hold all of their emotions.

"What's going on?" Andros asked as Madeline looked down at her shoes and motioned for them to follow her.

"They've been investigating you for the past few days, that's why we were brought here," Sam said as Kim looked up at him and just shook her head.

"This is bull shit, we presented our final report to them almost a year ago and now they decide that this is the time to call us in?" Kim said as she took Chris from Tommy's arms.

"What they want to know, we can't answer," Madeline said as they looked over at her and she looked down at the ground.

"What do they want to know?" Jason asked, carefully, as Madeline slowly raised her head to face him.

"How can you guarantee that there will never be a need for rangers again," Madeline stated as they stared at her in shock. "They want the story of how that phantom team showed up and saved the world as well as the rangers."

"Cassie is going to kill me," Andros muttered as Tommy let out a laugh and Andros looked over at him. Andros had kept it a secret from Cassie that he had taken any powers back, especially considering her stance on the entire situation. "You have it easy, your wife was one of the 'phantoms'."

"Do you think that there is any way that you can buy us the morning to take showers and get settled in?" Trini asked, as she knew that every woman here was not exactly thrilled with what had happened last night.

"Yeah, we should be able to bull shit around long enough to buy you some time," Maddox said as they gave them grateful smiles and then headed for the clerk's desk.

"What do you have in mind?" Sam asked as Madeline let out a long sigh.

"I say with fuck with them some and throw in some things that they completely expect to hear, like the word mission and some foreign planet that I'll make up in the next few minutes," Madeline said as the others smiled and they headed for the all too familiar interview room.

"I thought that the other rangers would be joining you today," Fred said as Madeline shook her head no. She knew that it was a lie, but she also knew that this was the very least that she owed them for pulling them out of their lives to come answer some questions.



"I'm sorry, but they aren't going to be able to make it. They had an all night flight and we're going to let them get some rest. Tomorrow you can talk to them, but I'll try to help as much as I can," Madeline said as the others smiled. They could see that the gears in her head were working over time and they were sure that she was coming up with something to tell them that actually happened, but would confuse them more than anything else.

"We left off with the extra training that Tommy was giving you," Fred prompted as Madeline nodded and then looked between Sam and Maddox to see which one of them was going to smile first.

"Yes, we did…" Madeline trailed off as Maddox just shook his head. This was definitely going to be interesting for all of them.

"If I ever go through another day like that, I swear that I will kill Tommy," Madeline said as she let out a long moan as she stumbled into the dojo and Maddox smiled over at her. He could see the intensity in her eyes and he was sure that she would make good on that promise if she was ever given the chance to do so.

"Kill me if you must, but as long as you become a better ranger for it, I won't care," Tommy whispered in her ear as she spun around. "You have got to learn to not zone out as much, Madeline. I know that it helps keep your powers in check, but for the next few months you can't have that happen. You have to be able to block him out, but keep your mind open for everything else."

"That is definitely something that I never thought that I would hear from you," Madeline said as she turned around and Tommy smiled down at her.

"Are you ready for the second day?" Tommy asked as Madeline just shook her head and Maddox could not help but agree with her. He could still feel the pain that was running through his back and Tommy could see it in his face. "You don't have a very good girlfriend. Kim at least would try to rub out the kinks that I had after we faced monsters."

"We're not really dating," Maddox said as Tommy laughed. Anyone with half a brain could see that they cared for each other, a lot more than they wanted to admit.

"Sure, tell that to someone who will buy your bull shit," Tommy said as Jason walked out of the back room and smiled over at him. "You want to warm up any?"

"No, I don't think that I need to do that," Jason said as Maddox let out a very long sigh. If Jason was not even going to attempt to warm up, they were going to be in for a long day. "Aren't you going to give them a break on the mats any way?"

"Don't spoil my fun," Tommy said with a smile as they looked over at him in shock.

"You're going to let us rest?" Madeline asked as Tommy nodded his head yes.

"I knew that I had pushed you much farther than you had ever been yesterday, so it was time that you learned how to be a ranger, a true ranger," Tommy said with a smile as all of the others looked at him in shock.

"What do you mean by a true ranger?" Maddox asked, as he was pretty sure that they were starting to agree with the definition of it all.

"How you act outside of these walls is something that I worry about more than how you act while we are here. Everything that you have experienced and will experience will make you bitter about many things. The fact that no one will ever give you any credit for what you do, for the fact that you will be ridiculed and even called evil, by some circles. As a ranger, you'll never be completely understood," Tommy said as they looked over at him, surprised that this was what he wanted to talk about, when there were many things that were more important.

"Is this what you're going through?" Madeline asked as Tommy nodded his head yes.

"Right now, we're all in a place that we have never been before. We have never been asked by the government to form a group of rangers and train them, for the purpose of protecting the earth. We have spent the last ten years trying to stay hidden and out of the public eye. We don't want for people to know who we are and what we do, but now a whole bunch of people that make more important decisions than I do, know who we are," Tommy said as Jason leaned against the desk and just shook his head. They all had their fears of what was going to happen at the end of this, but they all imagined that there was going to be even more investigating when all of this ended and that was something that they didn't want. They didn't know how to live with it.

"You're worried that they will reveal you to the world?" Maddox asked as Tommy nodded his head yes. It was still their worst fear that they would be revealed as the original rangers and expected to save everyone, when the sad fact was that they no longer had the powers to do that. They were completely helpless if that sort of thing happened to them, because they would not be able to deny that they were rangers. That was a fact that they were proud of and also something that they desperately needed to keep a secret. They couldn't live in the normal world if everyone found out that they were rangers, they would become celebrities and that was something that they never wanted to be.

"Where are the rangers?" Special Agent Flowers asked as he burst into the room and Madeline looked back over at him and just shook her head.

"They are getting the rest that they deserve, since you woke them up at two o'clock this morning to bring them out here," Madeline smarted off as Special Agent Flowers crossed the room a few steps and slapped her to the ground.

"I am a government official, you do not talk to me in such a manner," Special Agent Flowers said as Maddox crouched down next to her to make sure that she was all right.

"Leave," Maddox said, calmly, as Sam and Garrett exchanged a glance. They both knew that his insides were boiling right now and he was giving the man one chance to leave before he made him pay dearly.

"You've got to be kidding that you think your little threat will get me to leave," Special Agent Flowers said as Sam and Garrett both grabbed Maddox's arms as he had jumped forward and he struggled against them as the man laughed. "Your other rangers are good little children, maybe they didn't learn that much from your mentors."

"You son of a bitch," BethAnn said as they had forgotten about her and her legendary temper as she slapped the man with her full force and he just stared at her. "If it weren't for our mentors we would still be rangers, so you can think that you are better than them all you want, because you have a damn badge, but I will tell you that everything that they have done is worth a hundred of your precious badges. Get the hell out of here, or I will make sure that you don't see the light of day again for a long time."

"I'm not scared of a little ranger," Special Agent Flowers said as Tommy appeared behind him.

"I'd be scared," Tommy whispered in his ear as he jumped around. "You don't come and harass my rangers without my knowing about it, get the hell out, before you have to face me."

"You'll be reported Oliver," Special Agent Flowers yelled as he walked out of the room.

"I'm certain that will change their minds about me," Tommy said as he just shook his head. "That man is going to get killed by a ranger one day and I'm not going to feel sorry for him."

"Why?" Maddox asked as Tommy looked over at him.

"He's the man that came to my house and told me that he knew what I was and he's been an arrogant asshole ever since that day," Tommy said as Fred looked at him in awe. He had heard a lot about Tommy and all of the others, but to see one of them in person definitely made him feel much more certain that whatever they had done had been for the good of the earth, not for the bad as some people suspected.


	18. Revelations

"You want to get some breakfast?" Tommy asked as he looked over at Kim and she just shook her head. She did not feel good this morning and she was just hoping to make it through the day without throwing up. "Honey, you're going to need something or you won't be able to hold up for what's ahead."

"Let me finish with Chris and then I'll try to hold something down," Kim said as Tommy gave her a concerned look and then went to dig around in his bag.

He had bought the test last week, but had forgotten to ever make her take it. He had honestly thought that she would figure out the symptoms on her own and just handle the problem and then come down and tell him one night that she had some good news. She, obviously, had been too wrapped up in everything else that was happening to even notice what her body was trying to tell her.

"Go take this," Tommy insisted as he passed her a pregnancy test and she could only stare at it. She could not believe that he was making her take a pregnancy test at a time like this. There were so many other things that she thought he would be asking her right now, mainly that she keep him from saying too much. They both knew that what he said would determine whether or not this investigation continued and although they all wanted it to be over, they didn't want to have to admit to some of the things that they had done. It was not that it was illegal, it was simply that it was uncomfortable for them to talk about. "Kim, you've been sick every morning for the past two weeks, take the test. At least then we will know what might be going on."

"Tommy, we're running late as is," Kim said as Tommy took Chris away and pressed it into her hand. He wanted a clear mind when he went in to reveal exactly why they could guarantee that the rangers would no longer be needed.

"It's going to be a rough day Kim, I just think that we should know before we go into everything," Tommy said as Kim barely nodded and went into the bathroom.

"Open up!" Madeline yelled as Tommy walked to the door and he smiled down at her. He had had the feeling that the welcoming committee would be sent to take care of him soon enough. "What are the two of you waiting for?"

"Good morning to you too," Tommy said as Madeline walked into the room and plopped down on the bed. She had been delegated to come get them out of their room and she did not like the task at all. "As soon as Kim gets out of the bathroom, we'll be ready."

"She better not be primping right now," Madeline said as Kim walked out of the bathroom and then began digging in her bag. "Let's go!! What are you waiting for?"

"I've got to get some money for some crackers," Kim said as Tommy gave her a curious look before she handed him the test and he just shook his head in disbelief.

"You are?" Tommy asked as Kim nodded and he threw his arms around her in a bear hug as Chris giggled with delight, although he was not really sure what for. "I love you."

"I love you too," Kim whispered as Tommy released her and saw the smile on her face.

"I'm confused," Madeline said as Tommy laughed. She was completely confused with what was going on right now and couldn't understand the exchange that she had just witnessed, but he did not expect her to be able to either.

"I'm going to be a father, again," Tommy said as Madeline looked over at Kim and then gave her a hug.

"I can't believe the two of you," Madeline said in excitement as she looked between them. "Another baby?"

"Hey, no one else knows," Tommy said as Madeline tried to settle down, but she just grabbed Kim's arm and pulled her out of the room, with Tommy following behind them shaking his head. He knew that they were going to have to tell the others, but he wanted to wait a little while before they said anything about it.

"They are going to kill me that I took this long," Madeline said as Tommy smiled. He knew that the fellow rangers might be a little bit perturbed, but all would be cleared up later on tonight.

"I'll just explain that we had some good news," Tommy said as Chris reached over for Kim and she took him into her arms.

"And I'll just say that I'm sick, which is the truth," Kim said as Tommy put his arm around her as they walked into the lobby.

"You okay?" Trini asked as Kim nodded her head yes. "You look tired."

"Little buddy here didn't sleep too good last night," Kim said as Trini gave her a concerned look. "And I didn't wake up so well this morning."

"What do you mean?" Trini asked as Kim just shook her head. "You're not going to tell us?"

"Tonight, when we are able to have a good dinner, we'll explain it all to you," Kim said as Trini smiled as Chris kicked Kim's stomach and she stiffened.

"We need to go to the room, so we can get this over with," Sam said as Kim smiled. She could not help but agree with him, for once.

"Do you know what they need?" Tommy asked as Madeline nodded. "What is it?"

"They want to know how that 'phantom' team showed up, when they only had enough funding for one ranger team given to you," Madeline said as Tommy just shook his head.

"I'd like to know that too," TJ said as Tommy glared over at him.

"You already know that, don't be a smart ass," Tommy said as Kim just shook her head as they walked in and Fred stared at them. He could not believe that he was actually meeting the rangers that he had only heard about for the greater part of two weeks.

"Take a seat," Fred offered as they filed in and filled the room. "There are a lot more of you that I imagined."

"There's more here than you can see," Madeline muttered as Tommy glared at her and she just smiled. She was going to try to do everything she could to make Tommy uncomfortable until they told everyone what was going on.

"Let's get down to business," Fred said as Madeline smiled and Tommy just took in a deep breath. He was going to have to talk about all of this and he was not sure if he would be able to do that right now.

* * *

"Tommy," Kim said as she ran into the Command Center and he looked over at her.

Chris was now three months old and she was now up to full speed, but that didn't mean that Tommy was exactly excited about that. She wanted to become more involved in the ranger world, but he kept holding her back, he wanted to make sure that Chris would have someone, even if it was not him. That was why he had become more vague with his parents and started falling back into old ranger habits. He knew that this was going to get extremely rough soon, even if he and Kim did not get pulled into the middle of the mess, which sadly was the way that it looked to be headed.

"What?" Tommy asked as he spun around and saw the look in her eyes. That look scared him more than anything else, he knew what that light in her eyes meant. He knew that she had found some sort of answer that was going to be scary as hell for him to deal with once she actually admitted the truth, but it would also be the one thing that they had been praying for, for months. "That's never good."

"T. J. called, you've got to see what he found," Kim said as Tommy just stared over at her. Those words were even scarier than the look that he had seen just moments before. T. J. may have been his successor, but he knew that there was a chance that the research that he had done, would not be something that he actually liked. "We can get rid of the power source."

"Get rid of it? How in the hell did you figure that out?" Tommy asked as Kim smiled.

She was glad that he took this surprise well enough. The circumstances of the last few weeks had definitely changed the way that he was acting and she completely agreed with everything that had happened. The rangers were struggling to beat back what was being thrown at them and although their training regiment had helped, it was still not enough to get them to the level of truly being a threat to Halindon.

"T.J. and Andros did some research," Kim said as Tommy looked over at her. He had not asked them to do anything, so why in the world had they just started piddling around for no reason? "And before you say it, I asked them to look over it. They have the most time to work on it and you'll be surprised at what they have found."

"So the Power Rangers can do it?" Tommy asked, hopefully, as Kim shook her head no. That was the one part about it that he might actually resist and that was why Andros and T.J. had sent her in instead. "Well, who can Kim?"

"Just read it and you'll see. I have to go get Chris out of the car," Kim said as Tommy stared over at her. He had thought that she had taken Chris to his parent's, like she usually did when she came here, but it seemed that things were different this time. "I was that excited, sorry."

The power source that is under the area of Angel Grove can be diminished and brought down by a group of experienced rangers. The younger rangers may not be able to handle the power of the source and use it effectively. If a 'group' of experienced rangers were to come forward and take a power directly from the source, willing to claim it for the entirety of their lives they will diminish the source to a manageable size which will cause the threat to earth to diminish and possibly even disappear.

"Kim…." Tommy trailed off as she walked in and Chris started reaching for him. "You know that it'll have to be…"

"Tommy, I know, but if we don't who else will?" Kim questioned as Madeline and Maddox walked in and they went quiet. They did not want the rangers to find out all of the extra information that they were going over right now. If they did over hear, they did not want to give them any false hope. They knew that these kids had been through so much and to put them through the hell of thinking that they might be able to get out of the ranger world, only to be stuck in it again, was not something that they wanted to do.

"Hey, we've come for our torture session," Maddox said as Tommy looked over and smiled. He could always rely upon the fact that the two of them would be on time and that he would always get a very good workout out of them.

"Kim, you want to do that today? I need to contact Andros and see what he's done," Tommy said as Kim nodded and walked them into the next room.

"You call, boss?" Andros asked as he appeared in the Command Center and Tommy jumped as he turned around. "Sorry, Kim warned me that you might want to talk about it all."

"How sure are you about this?" Tommy asked as he gently bounced Charlie in his arms.

"Sure enough that I've brought this for you," Andros said as he held out a morpher and Tommy took it from him with a smile. It felt like second nature to have a morpher with him at all times and these last few months, while he had had to watch the rangers had been agony for him. He had never been this involved and not been a ranger himself. "All of the main PANEL member will have to take one, but if we do…"

"We need to bring everyone here," Tommy said as Andros nodded and they heard Kim let out a loud moan and Tommy walked into the next room. "Are you okay?"

"Ask them that," Kim said as she walked over to him and he saw Madeline and Maddox sprawled on the floor.

"Lord, Kim," Tommy muttered as she smiled and then helped them up. "So, I guess you are going to need one of these as well."

"If you're going, I'm going too. There is no way in hell that I'll let you do that alone," Kim said with a smile as Madeline and Maddox gave her a concerned look.

"I hope that you know what we're getting into," Tommy said as Andros walked in and looked at Kim.

"I do, trust me," Andros said as Kim offered him a smile and then walked back to the mats. The rangers still didn't know what was going on and they had to prepare them in case the wonderful plan did not work.

* * *

"Nice story," Special Agent Flowers said as Tommy spun around and the others watched him carefully. "So this is the bull shit that you make up."

"Agent Flowers, is it?" Andros asked as Kim got a secure grip on Tommy's arm, she did not want for her husband to jump him. "Who the hell do you think that you are to tell us that that is bull shit?"

"I think I am the man that is going to arrest you," Special Agent Flowers said as Tommy glared at him and an eerie glow appeared around his body.

"They have not finished, as they did not reveal if they followed through with their plans," Madeline said through clenched teeth as Jason had a firm grip on Tommy's shoulder as Kim and Trini both exchanged glances. They could see the things that were going through their husbands minds and they both knew that what they were thinking was absolutely horrible.

"And even if they did, it saved your pretty little posh ass in the end, so I don't think arresting them will do you any good," Maddox said as Special Agent Flowers looked over at him in shock. He was surprised that this was coming out of Maddox's mouth; any of the others it would have seemed right, but not from him. Not from the lone ranger who had never completely committed.

"You never truly cared about being a ranger," Special Agent Flowers said as Maddox glared over at him and it became obvious to him that he had stepped over some unknown boundary.

"That is one thing that you have gotten wrong, Michael. I cared more about being a ranger than you would ever imagine and just because you couldn't have dealt with all of it, does not mean that you have the right to cause them all of this hell now," Maddox said as several of them stared at him, confused that he had known the agent's first name.

"I never wanted to do this to you Maddox," Special Agent Flowers said as Maddox just shook his head.

"You've chosen your side and I've chosen mine, you do what you have to do now," Maddox said as Madeline grabbed his hand and he looked over at her. "It's a long story…I'll explain it later."

"I never thought that you would become one of them," Special Agent Flowers said as he turned and left the room and all the eyes then focused on Maddox.

"We grew up together and we both went into the service at the same time, but you see where he has wound up and you see what it's done to him," Maddox said as he sighed. "There was a time when I trusted him with my life, but now, things have changed."

"Things always change," Tommy muttered as Maddox barely nodded his head. He had learned an immense amount from the older rangers and he had put all of it to good use. It might not have been the best thing, but it was the thing that got him by and it was the one thing that made him believe that he had found his home.


	19. The Truth Be Told

"Are you feeling okay?" Tommy asked as he walked up behind Kim as she stared at herself in the mirror and let out another sigh. She just could not believe that she was pregnant again and she felt that everyone would know it by looking at her. "You look great, Kim."

"You have to say that, you're my husband," Kim said as she blew a stray strand of hair out of her face and Tommy tried, unsuccessfully, to hold in a laugh. She was so funny to him when she doubted how she looked. He never would think that she didn't look beautiful, even when she was sick or just woke up, it didn't matter to him. "I knew it!"

"Kim, look at me, you are still beautiful to me and you always will be," Tommy whispered as he looked at her in the mirror and she saw the hunger in his eyes. It was something that Tommy never seemed to be able to hide, even if he wanted to and right now she knew that he wanted her to know exactly how he felt. "No one will be able to tell that you're pregnant by looking at you, unless you just leave your hand on your stomach like that."

"Tommy…" Kim trailed off as she moved her hand and he guided his own to her flat stomach and pulled her in tighter.

"Mama!" Chris yelled as he tottered over and Kim reached down for him and picked him up.

"Tell Mama she looks pretty," Tommy said to Chris as just smiled at Kim and snuggled up against her. "At least he agrees with me. You look fine, Kim, come on, the others are waiting."

"Okay," Kim barely whispered as Chris giggled with delight and wound his little arms around her tightly.

"What took you so long?" Trini asked with concern as she looked over at Kim and saw the tiredness in her eyes. "Kim…"

"I'll explain it at supper," Kim said as Tommy reached over and put his arm around her and she settled against him quickly. She was exhausted from the jet lag and not sure that she would be able to take much more tonight.

"You don't look so hot," Andros muttered as he gave Kim a concerned look of his own and Tommy then glared at him over Kim's head. "As in you look sick."

"I know, I don't exactly feel that great," Kim said as Andros looked between Kim and Tommy and then smiled. "What is that look for?"

"Another bun in the oven," Andros whispered in Kim's ear as she looked at him in shock. "It's pretty obvious by the look on his face and you haven't acted like this since…"

"Thanks," Kim whispered as Andros smiled at the two of them.

"Any time, Kim," Andros said as they all walked into the restaurant and the hostess gave them a startled look.

"Did you call for reservations?" the hostess asked, slightly distressed as Madeline pressed her way to the front and handed the hostess a note from Fred. "Oh, this is the special group that we held the back room for…I was worried that you would never show up."

"We had some complications," Madeline said as she looked back at the others and Kim gave her a sheepish grin.

"Well, let me take you back there," the hostess said, politely as they followed her and they tried to make themselves as discreet as possible, considering how many of them that there were.

"Do you think that we are safe?" BethAnn asked as she looked back at the older rangers and Tommy shrugged his shoulders, he was not sure about anything anymore. He had thought that he would not be asked about any of this, but obviously that had changed.

"I think we just need to let tonight be about talking about things that are meaningless," T.J. said as Tommy barely nodded his head in agreement, although he was sure that their news did not fall into that category.

"So, what has been going on with all of you?" Aisha asked, looking at the younger rangers and they just smiled.

"We've been trying to keep from saying too much," Maddox said as Tommy just shook his head.

"We wouldn't be here if you hadn't said something," Tommy said, rather pointedly, as Maddox barely nodded his head in agreement. "It's all right, I think we all knew that we were going to have to eventually come in to settle all of this mess. They were not just going to take our report for what it was. That would be far too simple."

"So why didn't you just come here to begin with?" Madeline asked as Kim and Tommy exchanged a glance.

"We all hoped that you would be able to handle this on your own, but it is obvious that you can't. The things that they really want to know are things that you only have a basic knowledge of, at best," Andros said as they looked over at him. "But, we didn't come here tonight to talk about what we were brought here for. We came here to actually try to relax."

"I didn't know that relaxing was something that was even possible to do," Maddox said as Tommy just shook his head. He knew that the five of them had had to be on their guard for the past two weeks, but now was time for them to calm down. The big guns had been called in to clean up the mess.

"You've got us here now, you can relax," Kim said as Madeline looked down at her and gave her a concerned look.

"Don't the two of you have some news?" Madeline said, as Tommy glared down at her and Kim silently covered her face as Tommy steered her towards a chair and the others followed.

"We'll get around to that sort of news later," Tommy said as Madeline gave him a suspicious look, but Kim barely even acknowledged either one of them. "We need some food in our system before that."

"Tommy, your news sounds like we are all going to need a couple of beers after this," Aisha said as Kim shook her head that that was not the case.

"It's just something that you're not going to expect to hear," Kim said as Aisha and Trini exchanged a glance before they both shook their heads. They knew that if Kim was determined to keep this a secret, then they were not going to be able to get it out of her until Tommy told them whatever it was.

"Well, I guess that we would never think that anything would be unexpected from the two of you," Rocky said as Kim and Tommy both laughed. They were the king and queen of unexpected things around here.

"We get the point," Tommy said as the waitress came around and took their orders, which they were all grateful for, at least they would have some time to talk in peace.

"So how have all of you been?" BethAnn asked as they all exchanged a glance.

"We've been alright, for the most part," Jason said as he glanced over at Kim and Tommy. He knew that she had been sick for the last week or so, but he didn't want to mention that to them right now.

"What do you mean for the most part?" Garrett asked as Kim looked over at Tommy and he reached over for her hand.

"I've kinda been sick," Kim said as they all looked at her and she found herself paying a lot more attention to Chris as Tommy took a deep breath.

"What we have to say kinda has to pertain to that," Tommy said as they all looked at him in anticipation, but the waitress showed up with their drinks at that time and he clamped his mouth shut.

"Spit it out," T.J. said as Tommy looked over at Kim and she barely shook her head that he could go ahead and say it.

"We're going to have another baby," Tommy said as the table went silent for a moment as they processed it and then the congratulatory remarks began.

"Congratulations!" The younger rangers chorused together as Trini and Aisha both stood and threw their arms around Kim in excitement.

"That's why you've been so distant?" Trini asked as Kim barely nodded and they both squeezed her again.

"That's why you went down that aisle last week?" Jason asked as a few of the others looked at him and Tommy barely nodded his head yes. "You know, I never really thought that you would do that willingly."

"Actually it was willingly," Tommy said as Jason stared at him.

"He went and got the test for you?" Trini asked as Kim nodded her head yes and the other guys looked at him in complete and total shock. They never would go down that aisle, especially if they didn't have to go do it.

"He figured it out before I did," Kim said as Jason looked over at him sideways and Tommy just shook his head.

"How could you figure that sort of thing out?" Jason asked as Tommy just shook his head.

"I think that he knows me better that I know myself some times," Kim said as Jason just shook his head. He knew that he knew Trini well, but he would never have been able to figure out that she was pregnant unless she just threw up for several weeks on end.

"That's scary," BethAnn said as several of the others nodded. They could not believe that Tommy would know her like this.

"So when are the two of you going to the doctor?" Madeline asked as Kim shrugged her shoulders.

"As soon as we get back," Tommy said as they looked over at him. "It's not like we have much of a choice about it, we can't go find a new obstetrician just because we are across the country for a few days."

"If this doesn't go well…" Madeline trailed off as they all looked over at her.

"We will make this work, Madeline," Tommy said, with an air of certainty that left them no doubt that all of this was going to be fixed, one way or another.

"How can you be so certain?" Sam asked as Tommy looked over at him.

"They have nothing on us and we did not use any extra money to make the team that saved you. We just used what the rangers have always used and if they don't like the fact that we know how to fight when the going gets rough, they can kiss my ass," Tommy said as the younger rangers stared over at him.

"You can't go in there like that tomorrow," Madeline said with a sense of worry as Tommy looked over at her.

"Madeline, I hate to say this, but we may have to be exactly like that to get our point across," Andros said as their food was brought in and they each took it with gratitude, but had no interest in eating immediately.

"You can't really believe that they are going to put you in jail for this. You haven't done anything wrong," Maddox said as they all looked at each other.

"They didn't want for us to be rangers, but we never signed anything that expressly forbid us from becoming rangers ever again. We had to do what we had to do to save the earth. Why do you think that we were so willing to keep these powers? We couldn't keep going through this and we didn't want anyone else to ever have to," Tommy said as they looked at each other and they realized that the older rangers had sacrificed so much more than they had ever known.

"We never knew…" Madeline trailed off as she just looked around at them and they all gave her a half smile. They had been trying to not be this blunt with the rangers, but they had had to be. It had finally come to the point where they could not just skirt around the details anymore, they all deserved to have some sort of idea about what was going on.



"You weren't supposed to, it just happened that this seems to be the only way that things will be solved," Tommy said as he looked around at them. "We never meant to bring all of you into this, especially considering what is going on, but there is nothing that we can do about it. This is the best thing that we can do and we're going to try to keep you out of it as much as we can."

"You don't need to do that for us anymore," Maddox said as all the others nodded their heads in agreement. "It's time that you have a life and we want to give that to you."


	20. A Way to Make it Work

The morning dawned early for the rangers as they woke from their slumber. All of them had stayed out far too long last night, catching up on things that they had not been able to talk about in a long time. It was all a lot for them to deal with, but it was something that they needed to do. It was the best thing that they could have done at the moment and it was the thing that had saved them from thinking about everything that was going on. They could not have stood it anymore, considering what was going on right now.

"Mama! Mama 'ake up!" Chris yelled as his little fists beat against Kim's shoulders as Tommy held him over her body and she groaned as she woke up to his smiling face and she looked up at Tommy. He knew how bad she was likely to feel and wanted to make sure that she was greeted by someone that would make her smile.

"Hey baby," Kim whispered as she gave him a kiss and he then gave her a very sloppy kiss back. "Good morning, Daddy."

"Morning, Mama," Tommy whispered back as he gave her a kiss and she slowly sat up. "You feeling better this morning?"

"Not really," Kim whispered as Chris reached over and clung to her and she gently put both of her arms around him. "I'll make it Tommy, today is just going to be about finishing up what we started."

"Hopefully we'll be able to do that without any problems," Tommy said as Kim barely nodded her head in agreement. She could not agree with him more on that point, as she just wanted to get back home. If she was going to suffer from morning sickness, she would rather be at home in her own bed. "How do you think the others spent last night?"

"They probably talked about everything that they know is going on. They don't have a sixteen month old on their hands," Kim said as Tommy barely nodded as Kim passed him to Tommy and headed for the bathroom.

"Do you want me to just let you stay up here with Chris today and get some rest?" Tommy asked as she retched over the toilet bowl and he gently rubbed her back.

"Rest? With Chris here? Tommy, it's not going to happen," Kim said as he tottered into the bathroom and started patting her back which caused them both to smile.

"You want Mama to get better, don't you?" Tommy said squatting down and lacing his arms around Kim and picking her up. "I'll take him, you just stay here and rest."

"But…" Kim began as he just shook his head.

"Call for some room service, get some rest, sweetie. I don't want to relive what happened a few years ago," Tommy whispered as he placed her in bed and gave her a kiss.

"Okay," Kim whispered as her eyes closed and she heard Tommy silently gather the diaper bag and pick Chris up before he walked out.

* * *

"Where's Kim?" Madeline asked as Tommy walked down alone and he merely looked over at her and shook his head.

"She doesn't feel so well, I just want to let her rest today," Tommy said as Trini nodded and then reached over and took Chris from his arms.

"I miss having one of these with me," Trini said as she shook her face in front of Chris and he laughed. They were all concerned about how Kim's body would take this, but none of them wanted to say that to Tommy. They all knew that he was thinking about it already. "How do you think this is going to be today?"

"I just want to finish today, I want to be able to get her home," Tommy said as they looked over at him.

"Well, the only way that you'll do that is if we get in there and start talking," Maddox said as Tommy nodded. He completely agreed, but he still did not feel extremely comfortable about all of this. He just had the feeling that things were about to head downhill fast.

"Good morning," Fred said as they looked around and noticed the extra officials again. "We have some visitors today."

"That's good," Tommy said as he just shook his head. "We should be able to finish all of this up by the end of the day."

"How long are you planning on keeping us here?" Agent Flowers asked as Tommy looked over at him.

"Until we are finished and that may take all day," Tommy said as he glared over at Agent Flowers, who could not help but squirm. He did not feel that he had any reason to fear the other rangers, but he knew that Tommy was one person that he did not want to deal with. He had found that much out the hard way. "I'm tired of bull shit and at this point that is all I have seen around here."

"You know I could have you arrested right now," Agent Flowers threatened as Tommy looked over at Jason and the both of them just shook their heads. They would like to see him try and see what 'accidentally' happened to him.

"Yeah, but I don't really know what charges you could think up of and if you stress my wife out anymore, I swear that we're going to have problems," Tommy said as Agent Flowers gave him a funny look.

"By the way, where is she?" Agent Flowers said as Tommy shook his head in disgust.

"She's not feeling so good," Tommy said as Agent Flowers smiled.

"I love hearing that," Agent Flowers said as he took a step towards the door and Sam grabbed his arm.

"You are going to let her get some rest," Sam said with an icy tone as the older rangers exchanged a look. The only ranger that Sam had ever been close to was Kim and none of them knew why, but they respected that he had at least found one person that was in his corner.

"Is there something that I should know about her current condition?" Agent Flowers said as Tommy glared at him and Sam only slightly slackened his grip. He was more than willing to let Tommy have his fun if he thought it would help.

"You shouldn't know anything about that, Harry," Fred said as Agent Flowers looked over at him in shock. "They've got lives that have nothing to do with them being rangers, now will you please let me go about the job that I was assigned?"

"You are a brave man Stevenson," Agent Flowers said as Fred shook his head.

"Well, I guess I am, since I am the one truly facing the rangers, not you," Fred said pointedly as Agent Flowers started to object, but then sat down, knowing that he was not going to get anywhere against that argument. "Now, if you will please precede with your story, so that we can try to get you home today."

"Thank you," Tommy said as he sat down and Chris reached over for him and he quickly took him.

"They found a way to make this stop?" Jason asked, bewildered as everyone else, as they sat down in the Command Center.

"A way to make it stop? Who said anything about a way to make it stop?" Aisha asked as Jason looked over at her. He could only assume that that was why they were brought here, although they did not say anything about it.

"They have found out something, Ish, otherwise we wouldn't be here," Rocky said as Aisha looked over at him, surprised that he was being this level headed. She knew that this had to be driving him up the wall, but for some reason he was being calm.

"Yeah, but what have they found and why aren't T.J. and Andros here either?" Trini said in a tone of concern as Rocky just shrugged his shoulders. There could always be a chance that they just hadn't made it here yet, but none of them honestly believed that.

"Hey guys," Kim said walking out and taking a seat between Trini and Aisha.

"What's going on?" Jason asked as Kim let out a long sigh.

"T.J. and Andros are going to explain it, I just kinda got the ball rolling," Kim said as each one gave her their own curious glance. "Please, don't look at me like that."

"We're just wondering what's going on here," Trini said as Kim barely nodded her head. She would be in the same position that they were in if she had not be instrumental in the development of this project.

"Hey guys," Tommy said as he walked out with Andros and T.J. close behind him, looking rather worried about the way that these rangers would take it. Tommy had taken it pretty well and had agreed to what they were asking, but they didn't know if the others would be anywhere near as receptive, considering what it could cost them.

"What's going on?" Jason asked as the three of them sat down and Kim looked down at her feet. She did not want to see their reactions, considering what was going on right now.

"We've found a way to diminish the power source to where no one will want to attack the earth," Andros said as they gave him a curious look, he had definitely gotten their attention with that statement. They had all been looking for a way out of this ever since they had gotten in this mess, but it seemed that they were going to be stuck for awhile.

"How can you possibly do that? Billy was sure that it would be dangerous to even attempt it," Trini said as T.J. and Andros exchanged a glance. They both knew better than to go against what the brain Billy said, but they had found a way.

"He said that it would be dangerous to attempt it with the inexperienced rangers, he did not say anything about what would happen if we attempted it," Andros said as they looked at them and then began shaking their heads.

"There is no way that we will take powers, have you seen what that has done to us in the past? What's to say that they won't go after earth, just because we have the powers?" Jason asked as Andros and T.J. exchanged a glance. They had known that this question would come up, but they had sincerely hoped that it would not.

"They'll only come after us once, we'll be far too powerful for them to even attempt it more than that," T.J. said as they looked over at him in surprise.

"So we will have to fight one more time?" Aisha asked as Andros nodded his head yes and they all looked at each other, silently agreeing to what must be done.

"We'll do it," Jason said, as Andros and T.J. let out the breath that they had been holding. They had never thought that they would be afraid to face the first group of rangers, but tonight had been their undoing. It was one thing to talk to Kim, but it was a completely different ball game when they had to talk to Tommy and the other male rangers. They were never going to give them a chance to just say it without thoroughly going through everything that they could think of.

"Now that that has been decided, we have to get the powers straightened out and who will get what," Andros said as they all looked around, hoping that someone else could explain it.

"It's simple each one of us will receive a power, but deciding which is compatible with whom is the problem," T.J. said as Kim and Tommy looked over at the two of them, they had not heard about this hitch in the plan. "It's not a huge deal, Tommy's was easy and Kim's should be as well. The four other red rangers and the two yellow rangers is where the problem resides. Not all of us can have red…but only the true red ranger can have it, same thing with yellow."

"How are we going to figure this out?" Jason asked as Andros and T.J. held up a manual. "What the hell is that?"

"The essences of each color, white and pink have been determined by default. Now we have yellow, red, blue, green, black, and gold to fight over," Andros said as the other rangers let out frustrated sighs. "Hey, we know it sucks, but if we don't do this, then we're going to be doing a lot more of this in the future. It's time that the rangers come to an end."

"Yeah it is," Trini said as she nodded her head. "I want my life back."

"Tri…you don't mean that," Jason said as Trini looked over at him and then back at the others.

"It's been great being a ranger, but its time for it to end, even if we do wind up with permanent powers," Trini said as they all nodded their heads in agreement. "So what exactly did you compile in that book?"

"Everything we knew about these powers and everything we knew about how powers had been picked in the past," Andros said as Jason shook his head.

"Let's get it over with," Jason said as he took a book from Andros and began scanning through the pages, as the other rangers did the same. They were all afraid that they were going to be in for a very long day.

* * *

"Daddy!" Chris cried, fussily, as Tommy stopped talking to try to calm him down. He did this when he was away from Kim too long and Tommy knew that it was going to be rough for him to get Chris calmed down.

"It's okay buddy," Tommy whispered as he gently bounced him on his knees, hoping that he would be able to calm him down quickly.

"Mama…" Chris cried as Trini reached for him, but he only started kicking his feet at that point.

"Can we break for a few minutes while I take him up to Kim?" Tommy asked as he knew that Chris was not going to calm down for anyone here, no matter how hard he tried or they tried.

"Sure, that's fine," Fred said as Tommy stood up and walked out of the room.

"What do you have to say about him? Is there anything that he did to make you doubt his leadership?" Agent Flowers asked as the older rangers glared over at him and the new rangers looked amongst each other, trying to figure out what they were going to say.

"He did everything he could, considering the fact that their son was born two months early and the fact that his wife was abducted by a damn monster. He kept his cool and if you tell me that you could manage to lead a group when all of that was happening, I think that you'd be lying. Tommy is the one you asked to do this and you know, he'd be damned to put them at risk. Now you've brought him here, you will deal with his wrath before all of this is over," Madeline guaranteed as Agent Flowers looked over at her. For the first time he realized exactly what was at stake, these rangers really did not wish to be pushed around and Tommy was going to protect them, like he always had.


	21. Decisions, decisions

"Kim…" Tommy said, tentatively as he opened the door to their hotel room and walked in, with the still wailing Chris. He hated doing this to her when she felt so bad, but he wanted to get them out of here as soon as possible.

"What do you want Tommy?" Kim barely muttered as she barely opened her eyes. She could hear Chris, but she was honestly too tired. She felt much worse than she had an hour before and she was just trying to keep from throwing up again.

"Baby, I'm sorry, but…" Tommy began as she pushed past him and ran for the bathroom, with Tommy following after her. Chris then toddled in, still wailing, as Kim vomited over the toilet and then placed her head against the wall.

"Mama!" Chris cried as she struggled to keep from vomiting again as he toddled over to her and wrapped his little arms as far around her as he could reach.

"Hey baby," Kim whispered as she rubbed his back distractedly and Tommy just watched Kim, knowing that she was not in any condition to deal with a crying toddler. "It's okay, Mama's here."

"I 'ant oo Mama," Chris cried as Kim looked over at Tommy, who pulled him away long enough for Kim to throw up again.

"Kim…do you want me to stay?" Tommy asked as Kim shook her head no. She wanted him here, but even more she wanted to be able to go home and be in her bed with the two of them. "Baby, you don't look so good."

"I know, Tommy…but I need you to finish everything with them…and take care of Chris, I can't do it," Kim muttered as he rubbed her back and Chris snuggled up against her.

"I'll handle it Kim, you're coming with me buddy," Tommy said as he grabbed Chris and he then screamed out in displeasure as he was being pulled away from Kimberly. He wanted to stay with his mama, but Tommy knew that Kimberly could not take taking care of him today. She was far too sick from the second child to even attempt to take care of the first.

"Mama!!" Chris shrieked as Tommy just pulled him into a bear hug, trying to comfort him as easily as he could, but finding that the boy was desperate to stay put.

* * *

"Why is he still here?" Agent Flowers asked as Tommy walked back in with Chris, who was not crying nearly as much, but he was still crying nonetheless.

"Kim's sick as a dog," Tommy said as Trini and Aisha exchanged a glance. They all knew that Tommy did not want to be here right now, but if he didn't say this, then no one would and they would be stuck here even longer. "But we need to just get this over with."

* * *

"What the hell? I can't tell you what power I should have after looking at all of this bull shit. The two of us have been different colors, so why don't we just take those colors back?" Jason asked, extremely frustrated with the entire process.

"Because neither of you are the stereotype for Blue or Gold," Tommy said as Jason looked over at him. How could he even attempt to clarify it all? "I've done my fair share of studying the properties of a rangers colors and believe me, we can't screw this up. If we do, we won't have a chance to make the life that we desperately need to make."

"Well what is the stereotype of each of these colors, since you're such an expert?" Aisha said, sarcastically, as Tommy let out a sigh. They all were short tempered because of the fact that they were having to sit here and haggle over which power embodied them more. Why couldn't the powers just pick them, like they always had in the past?

"Let's start with the colors that we know the most about: red, yellow, and blue. Those colors have always been the core of any ranger team. It is honestly rare to see a team that does not have any of those colors, actually I can't think of any," Tommy said as the others nodded. "Yellow is generally female, while blue is generally male, although there have been exceptions in recent years. Red has always been male, no matter what, so I think that we know that it will be one of you four to receive that power."

"That helps a lot, we've all be reds," Rocky snapped as Tommy closed his eyes and carefully counted backwards from ten. He knew that they were frustrated, but they needed to just dumb everything up and talk about things that they already knew were a fact.

"Yes and so was I, but by default, I got white, because I was a white first. All of you were reds first and therefore you have the true elements of a red that I didn't have. I'm a white, that's it, that is where I was most at home. Jason, you and Rocky, both have some of the characteristics of the blue and gold rangers, but neither of you fit. Trini is better inclined to blue, while I think that Aisha will be better off staying with yellow," Tommy said as the girls looked over at him and Kim gave him a sideways glance. If he was sure, she would not argue, but she thought he had lost his damn mind. Trini? As a blue? What the hell?

"Me? A blue? Come on Tommy, I think that you've taken one too many hits," Trini said as Tommy just shook his head as they all stared at him.

"I'm sure of this, you and Aisha were the easiest to figure out. If Billy hadn't been there, you would've been a blue, that's it," Tommy said as she reluctantly nodded her head in agreement. She had to admit that she had thought about it a couple of times. "Now, if the four of you will have some patience with me, I think I can get all of this figured out in the next few minutes."

"Tommy…" Kim whispered as he looked over at her and she gave him a scared look. He was connecting with something that she had only seen him connect with a couple of times and every time that had happened it had been rough for them afterwards. "Please, be careful with this."

"I will," Tommy said as he focused his mind towards the four remaining powers. He had been three of the four remaining powers, and he knew that both Jason and Rocky had been other colors, but it was obvious to him that they had been more at home in red. He was almost positive that Jason would be the red ranger in the end, but he did not think it wise to say that now. "Let's start with black…"

"Why black?" Andros asked as Tommy rubbed his temples and thought for a long moment. Why was he choosing black first?

"Because it is what I was most recently, it'll be the easiest. Black rangers always seem to have that little bit of their life that is a secret. They are strong people, but there are things that they hide. Now that I think about, it makes sense for Andros to be the black ranger," Tommy said as Andros stared over at him.

"What?" Andros bellowed as Tommy looked up at him, half annoyed. He had fully expected to be able to keep his color, but Tommy thought otherwise.

"Your wife doesn't even know that you are here, that's a hell of a secret if you ask me," Tommy said, solidly shutting him up and Andros just nodded his head, accepting his fate to have one color added to his persona. "Green next…I was evil, hell…I can't categorize a green…I don't know how."

"Hardship, Tommy…that is what comes to green rangers. Adam had to watch his best friend have his back broken, you almost killed all of us…I'd say that hardships come with a green ranger," Kim said as Tommy looked over at her and gave her a grateful smile. She could go and search out that type of power, but she was honestly better at other areas.

"Which one of you has had more hardship?" Tommy wondered aloud as he looked between Rocky and T.J. The fact was, he had already throw Jason out of the equation. He was the true red ranger, even if the others didn't want to accept it. "Rocky…you're the green ranger."

"And by default that makes Jason the gold ranger and me the red ranger since he's had that power, right?" T.J. said, hopefully, as Tommy shook his head no.

"Jason is the red ranger, T.J. I might have picked you as my successor, but you are better suited for the gold powers. Jason was never at home there and will never be at home there. You will, you'll find things in the gold ranger that you only ever imagined as a red," Tommy said as T.J. just shrugged his shoulders. He was not going to have a choice about it, as it seemed that Tommy's word was final.

"So that's the team?" Trini asked, still a little bit skeptical of it all.

"Yes, that is the team, Trini…but how do we get these powers?" Tommy asked, turning to Andros and T.J., who took a slight step back.

"It's not a mission, but it's going to be uncomfortable…" Andros trailed off as Kim let out a disgruntled sigh. 'Uncomfortable' in the ranger world meant painful as hell.

"Well, let's not just sit here, let's get it over with," Jason said as the others nodded their heads in agreement. They could not wait around as the world continued to fall apart at their finger tips.

* * *

"Uncomfortable? Why do all of you have that look on your face?" Fred asked as each of the rangers was shifting around uncomfortably in their chair.

"Because of what it does to us, uncomfortable is a word in power ranger lingo that means that we're completely screwed," Tommy said as Fred and Agent Flowers looked at them in confusion. "Let's take a break for lunch and then Andros is going to take over. He knows the process much better than me."


	22. The Process

"Hey," Trini said as she sat down on the edge of the bed and Kim welcomed her with a groan as she covered her eyes to block out the light from the window. She was sure that it would give her a much worse headache than the one that she already had. "Tommy sent me up here, you want me to stay?"

"I guess," Kim muttered as Trini cringed. Kim's morning sickness had been bad with the other pregnancies, but this time it was much worse. They were all sure that that had to do with the stress level, but she hoped for both Kim and Tommy's sakes that it would get better. Kim was never a pleasant person to be around when she was like this and they all knew that Tommy was going to need her tonight.

"Does anything sound good to you?" Trini asked as Kim shook her head no. Everything made her feel sick right now, from the smell of Trini's perfume to the thought of food. "Sleep, sweetie. Tommy just wanted someone up here in case you get any worse."

"Worse?" Kim asked as Trini barely smiled, Kim was definitely not very happy right now. "How could I get worse?"

"Ask him when he comes back," Trini said as Kim stood and stumbled towards the bathroom. This was going to be a very long day.

* * *

"Let us begin," Andros said as they all settled back in to their seats. Actually, Tommy sat on the floor playing with Chris and the rangers that had been second and third in command took the seats that had belonged to Kim and Tommy. They knew that Tommy would talk with them again when Chris had settled down some.

"Whatever you say," Fred said as he turned on his camera and Andros then began his testimonial.

* * *

"The system is simple enough, the coins have been given a feeble link to the source of power. The rest of the powers must be gathered. We have to return to the first Command Center, there we will find the connection to the morphing grid and we will be able to pull out the powers," Andros said as Kim looked at him and shook her head.

"Some of us are not at full strength, I'm not sure if we can even manage it," Kim said as Andros looked over at her. "Well, just me, I'm not sure if I have it in me to do that."

"You, not have it in you? Who took Kimberly Oliver and replaced her with this look alike?" Andros asked as Tommy stepped between the two of them, sure this would explode into a full force conflict. Kim did not take that sort of comment well, she never had.

"I don't know, somewhere along the way I decided my life is kinda important," Kim said as Andros pushed Tommy aside and Kim walked up to Andros, in anger. "I have a child Andros! I can't lose my life because I'm too weak to handle the power surge. Did you ever, even once, think about that?"

"We could spread out the process," TJ intervened as Andros and Kim looked like they were going to kill each other at any moment. The others were surprised that Tommy allowed Andros to say something like that, but Tommy was more than willing to let Kim get out some of her frustrations on someone else for once.

"There is no spreading this out, TJ, the pull has to all be at one time or it will become unstable and we will risk the powers being out of commission and leaving the earth completely unprotected," Andros said as Kim looked between them.

"What about the others?" Jason asked, suddenly remembering the power rangers they were training.

"Their powers have been taken into consideration as long as they do not over exert themselves, we'll have no problem," Andros said as Tommy let out a laugh.

"Overexertion is a rangers middle name, you know that, we've all pushed ourselves too much in the past," Tommy said as he looked down at Kim. She was the main person that he was talking about.

"Well, if they go to that point, they'll lose their powers. There is nothing more in their reserves," Andros said as they all nodded. "You don't foresee an all encompassing battle any time soon, do you?"

"I really don't know, Halindon is attempting to mount an attack to bring them down," Tommy said as Kim looked over at him.

"But he does that every week," Kim said as Tommy nodded his head in agreement. This was nothing new to them, they had had this going on for years.

"If he ever fights them, they'll max out. He's too powerful for them to handle," Tommy said as Andros nodded. He had figured out that much on his own.

"But you are powerful enough," Rocky pointed out, but instead of Kim jumping in, Andros did.

"We do not wish to reveal ourselves right away, we will leave a little bit of power in the reserves, hopefully they won't dig in too much," Andros said as they all nodded. "Have I pleased everyone enough?"

"Nope," Trini said as Andros glared over at her. "When are we going to have enough down time to recover from that sort of power surge?"

"We won't be recovering, we'll be kicking ass," Kim said as Trini looked over at her.

"To hear that from you is like therapy," TJ said as Tommy barely nodded his head in agreement. He was glad that his wife was finally coming back to normal. "So today or tomorrow?"

"Can we tomorrow? I'm tired and Chris has been at his mom's all day and she told me she had something to do this evening," Kim said as Tommy nodded and the others agreed as well. He knew better tan to disagree.

* * *

"Where are they?" Madeline asked as she walked into the command center and saw it was utterly empty. They could not believe that the rangers had vacated the residence.

"I think that they needed some time alone," Maddox said as Madeline smiled and shook her head. "Why not take a seat? Everything needs to be looked over in case all hell breaks loose."

"How often has that happened?" Madeline asked as Maddox looked over at her. He did not want to see that happen, but it had happened in the past, to almost every team.

"Don't jinx us Maddie," Maddox said as the siren sounded and he silently cursed this, but didn't say anything. He knew that he'd be up shit creek if he said anything to her.

"Maddox, we might be in trouble," Madeline said as she focused on the siren and tried to discern what exactly was going on. All she could see was the little minions running around, but there was no monster.

"Come on, Madeline, we can take them along," Maddox said as she just shook her head. She had a bad feeling about all of this.

"Wait, something's not right," Madeline said as she focused on the screen again, what was different with them than all of the others that she had seen?

"You're right, they're attacking and we are not there," Maddox said as he grabbed her hand and teleported away.

"This isn't Angel Grove," Madeline said as she shook her head as the others teleported in as well.

"Well aren't you the smart one," Halindon said as Madeline whipped around and stared at him in shock. "Welcome to my world, you are stuck here rangers with your world now left unprotected."

"You asshole!" Madeline yelled trying to run towards him, but found herself being thrown back from an invisible force field.

"Trapped little rangers," Halindon said as he walked away and Madeline looked at the others.

"Don't say it, I know that I screwed up bringing us here," Maddox said as Sam looked over at him.

"No blame game today, we have to work on getting out of here," Madeline said as they all looked over at her. "Morphing won't work, but there is a chance that something else will, we just have to think."

"Newsflash, if you didn't realize it, we're not the ones with any experience here," Sam said as Madeline turned to face him.

"One day they didn't have any experience either. Now we don't have a fucking choice but to do it," Madeline said standing toe to toe with Sam. He now had the feeling that she should have been in the Marines instead of the Air Force.

"Yes ma'am," Sam said as she took a step away and then let out a long breath.

"Let's see what we can throw at this thing," Madeline said as they all nodded their heads. She had just snatched the reigns away from Sam and he was now just another ranger.

* * *

"Tri…" Kim said as she propped herself up against the wall and Trini looked back over from the television.

"Hm?" Trini asked as she looked over at her.

"Can you please go get Tommy?" Kim asked as Trini looked over at her and saw how pale she was at the moment.

"What's wrong?" Trini asked as Kim just shook her head.

"I need my husband. It's no offense to you, but I need him right now," Kim said as Trini nodded. She had had her own moments when she needed only Jason and this was one of those days for Kimberly. She needed Tommy and no one else.

"I'll go get him Kim, it'll be all right," Trini said as Kim barely nodded and then slumped back down into bed. She was glad to know that she would have Tommy back with her and that was what she really needed.


	23. Search Around, See What You Find

"Tommy…" Trini said peaking her head in and he looked back at her as she motioned for him to follow her out. She had just left Kim and knew that there was no use acting as if she didn't need only him.

"Hey, what's up?" Tommy asked, bouncing gently Chris on his hip and Trini looked at him and he gave her a concerned look. He had seen that look before, but he did not want to see it now. He wanted to be able to finish this mess up so that he could get his wife home.

"Kim just wants you to be up there with her. I'll take Chris for you, but she's kinda insistent that you be there with her," Trini said as Tommy just shook his head and then passed Chris off to Trini.

"I'll go, just come get me if they for some reason need my expert analysis of how we kicked Halindon's ass," Tommy said with a smile as he walked off to the elevator. No he was not happy to be going to his sick wife, but he was happy to get out of that room. It was about to drive him crazy right now.

"Where'd he go?" Jason asked as Trini looked over at him and she just shook her head.

"She's not going to feel any better with me up there, Jase. She needs him, not me," Trini said as Andros shook his head.

"I love how he works with things. Kim calls, he runs that way, we call he runs this way, you think the man would have had an emotional breakdown by now," Andros said as Trini laughed.

"Yeah, do you think that they haven't had problems because of that in the past?" Trini asked as Andros nodded that he knew that they had. This was the truth of the matter, the real reason that things could go to hell in five seconds with Kimberly and Tommy. Tommy was always pulled in so many directions and sometimes he just let himself get stretched too thin.

"Can we get back to the actual interview?" Fred suggested as Andros nodded his head yes. He knew that Kim and Tommy wanted to get back to California as soon as possible.

* * *

"Tommy!" Kim yelled as Tommy came running in and saw Chris sitting up on his own and he couldn't help but smile. Chris had made it through so much and although the doctors said he was a little bit behind most babies, his age, it was nothing for them to worry about. He seemed to be catching up just fine.

"To think we'll actually get to enjoy this in a few days," Tommy said as he sat down on the floor next to her.

"Only a few days? You're sure Halindon will take a bite at us that soon?" Kim asked as Tommy nodded his head yes. Halindon could not resist confronting them once the power source had been brought down to almost nothing. "I think he needs to go visit your parents for a few days in that case."

"Maybe tomorrow, we'll call them tonight and make sure it's all right," Tommy said as Kim nodded her head in agreement. "You okay?"

"Something doesn't seem right. Can you just feel around and see what comes up?" Kim asked as Tommy nodded his head that he could, although she had never asked him to do something like that before.

"Don't get emotional on me…I don't need you interfering with it all," Tommy said as Kim smiled and then walked over to Chris and picked him up.

"We'll go work on supper, you just do your mental scanning," Kim said giving him a kiss on the cheek.

As Tommy zoned out things became more clear. Of course he had to figure out what Kim's emotions were first, but after her it became less complex. Each ranger had their own signature he could recognize, but after going through all of them, nothing seemed wrong. Then he was overwhelmed by fear, it was something that he had felt form Kim in the past, but this was not her…it was Beth.

"Kim! Kim!" Tommy yelled shaking himself out of his daze.

"What?" Kim asked peaking in as he looked back at here, trying to collect all of his thoughts. He did not want to scare her with what he was feeling, but that was not going to stop him from saying it.

"Call my parents, our rangers have been captured," Tommy said as Kim threw down her towel, completely pissed off about what was happening.

"I'll get on it, you better get the others on their shit. They have to meet us at headquarters and do you think we should call in our backup?" Kim asked as Tommy nodded his head yes. They had never done it before, but they knew the others would understand.

* * *

"What the hell happened?" Conner asked as Kim and Tommy walked in, obviously pissed about something.

"Our rangers got themselves captured," Kim said as the rangers let out a collective groan. They all knew what that meant for them at this moment. They were about to go through hell. "And by the way, we have to go drain the power source now, so all of you are in charge here."

"You're going to do what?" Billy yelled as Kim continued towards the doors with Tommy right behind her. "They've lost their damn minds."

"Since when has Dr. O ever been rational?" Kira asked as Conner placed his arm around her and nodded in agreement. Dr. O was a great person, but he led with his heart and that sometimes put them in sticky situations.

"I'd just like to think he would be now that he has a child," Ashley said as Kira nodded her head in agreement. "But it's Tommy, we should expect this."

* * *

"Explain what is going on here," Jason said as Andros and TJ busied themselves with the harnessing units. They had been told a little bit more and were shocked about all of this.

"Our little rangers have been attacked and captured. We've got no choice but to deal with this shit and get our own powers so that we can kick ass and then go back to normal life," Kim said as Jason looked over at her in shock.

"How the hell did that happen?" Jason asked as Kim shrugged her shoulders. They had yet to figure that one out themselves, but it wasn't important how it happened, but that it did.

"Shit," TJ muttered as he jumped away from the machine. "It's hot."

"How much longer?" Aisha asked as Andros and TJ shrugged. They had thought they'd have a night to prepare everything, now they had only a few minutes.

"Just give us a little while, I didn't think that some shit was happening out in the world," Andros said as Aisha looked over at him and attempted to say something but quit. Andros had a very good point about it all.

"Andros, you should know by now that whenever we plan to do something the shit is about to hit the fan," Kim said as Tommy laughed. The two of them could track down the history easily, but most of the others would argue that they had just become paranoid.

"Yeah, I just wish you would have told me that earlier," Andros said as Tommy laughed.

"Come on, you've known me for close to ten years and when has the shit not hit the fan when I am involved?" Tommy asked a Andros smiled and TJ reached over to stop him.

"We've got the connections made, now it's time to make the pull," TJ said as Andros nodded and the others gathered around.

"The power will affect those that have been longest without powers the most," Andros said as each person held onto a crystal. "It will infuse evenly, as long as contact is maintained. However, if at any time the power becomes too much for you, you can release it and the crystals will shift in proportion. Tommy, you will probably pull the most, while either Aisha or Trini will pull the least."

"Who is going to throw the switch?" Tommy asked as Andros and TJ exchanged a glance.

"Cassie!" Andros yelled back as she stepped out and Tommy looked over at him. "So I told her."

"I hope you didn't mess up your color," Tommy said as Andros laughed.

"Come on, Tommy, if it's not me, then you'll wind up with more powers. It's no big deal, " Andros said as Tommy let out a sigh. This was the kind of thinking that got them here.

"I hope you're right Andros," Tommy said as Cassie counted down from three and they all awaited the jolt, which Trini and Aisha immediately felt, while Tommy and Kim only felt the pulsing of the crystal.

* * *

"Okay, we can't morph or call our weapons or teleport. Now what else do you have in that bright little head of yours?" Sam asked as Madeline glared over at him.

"We will get nowhere with you acting like this. The force field is feeding on something in here, we just have to figure out what it is," Madeline said as she pulled out her morpher and placed it on the ground. "Do you remember anything they said about being captured?"

"No, I only remember…maybe we just have to wait and see what can be done," Maddox said as the others and Madeline let out a sigh, knowing that he was probably right. They had to wait to be saved, there was no other choice.

"No choice? You couldn't fight your way out?" Special Agent Flowers said as they looked over at him.

"We did absolutely everything that we could. That is why they had to come in…there was nothing else that we could do," Madeline said as Special Agent Flowers just shook his head. He could not believe that this was the way that it had to go, that these rangers would actually need some sort of help.

"I find that hard to believe," Special Agent Flowers said as Jason and Andros just shook their heads.

"Well, no matter what you think, that's just the beginning of what happened…you still have to hear the truth about the grand finale," Andros said as Special Agent Flowers stared over at him. "It's time that you get the facts straight, because if Tommy comes back down…all hell will break loose, I can guarantee that."


	24. Tempting Evil

"How the hell are the two of you still standing?" Andros asked as Kim and Tommy looked at each other. They didn't really have a problem with it, nothing was affecting them. They could barely feel the energy pooling into their veins.

"These powers aren't that bad," Kim said as she and Tommy started glowing. They progressively became more like streaks until the others had no idea if they were actually still there in body.

"They've pulled everything that we've allotted, why hasn't the machine turned off?" TJ asked as Andros shrugged his shoulders. He had expected Tommy to be the last man standing, but to know that two of them would be evenly balanced was slightly scary.

"Hey, release the crystals on three," Andros said as Kim and Tommy barely muttered a yes. "1…2…3."

It looked like an electrical storm had hit the Command Center when the two of them broke contact with the crystals. Pink and white lightning bolts branched off from them as the others ducked to the ground and the two of them finally looked around and saw the damage.

"No more fireworks from the two of you," Andros said as Kim and Tommy just shook their heads. They had not meant to do any of this.

"It's not like we purposefully did this," Kim said as Andros and TJ just shook their heads.

"Well, be glad that we're on your side," Tommy said as Andros nodded. He knew that Kim and Tommy would be something that they never wished to face. It would honestly be hell to have to do that.

"Yeah, trust me that I'm glad," Andros said as Kim jumped around as a joke and then reached for her morpher.

"Let's go kick ass," Kim said as Andros laughed and they all piled in together.

"You think just going in there without a plan will be effective?" Aisha asked as Kim and Tommy nodded.

"The two of us need to go get our rangers. The rest of you need to lure Halindon into the open while we get them," Tommy said as they barely nodded. "Don't get yourselves killed."

"Don't plan on it," Andros said as Tommy smiled and Kim and he then teleported away.

"The two of them are psycho," TJ said as Andros nodded and he then looked around at the others.

"Now how in the hell are we going to lure Halindon out?" Trini asked as Jason looked over at him.

"He'll recognize the sudden power pull, don't worry, he'll come for us," Andros said as Trini looked over at him. "Kim and Tommy have got to be messing with his mind, I've never heard of two people with so much power."

"No, you just never thought Kim was Tommy's equal," Jason said as Andros barely nodded. "The two of them have been through hell together. It only makes sense that they would be equal."

* * *

"Again…try it again," Madeline said as Beth Ann just shook her head.

"Our powers aren't that strong and he knows it, I can't get us out, even though my heart wills it to happen," Beth Ann said as streaks of pink and white appeared outside the force field.

"No more heart willing this to happen crap," Sam said as Kim and Tommy looked at the force field.

"What the hell is this?" Kim asked looking around at the force field. "What do we have that can take on this, but not hurt them?"

"I don't know, can you make a force field?" Tommy asked as Kim tried and made a rather strong force field around herself. "Can you get in and cover them up? I should be able to bring this down."

"Yeah," Kim said as Tommy pulled off her helmet and then his own. "What's wrong Tommy?"

"Don't do this if you think you can't," Tommy said placing his hands on each side of her face and she gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"I can Tommy, don't worry," Kim said as she walked through the field and the rangers stared at her. "Hey guys look gather up so I can do this."

"Kim, where the hell did those come from?" Madeline asked holding her helmet and Kim carefully took it from her.

"We'll tell you later, we've got to get you out of here," Kim said as she placed her arms up to form a shield around them. They watched in awe as Tommy fired a blaster at the force field causing the first one to burst into flames and Kim to shake to hold her own. As the fire died away, Kim collapsed to the ground and let out a loud groan.

"Kim," Sam said squatting down and she rolled over on her own.

"Damn him," Kim said as Tommy walked over to her and he picked her up. "You know you could have held back."

"I did," Tommy said as she glared up at him and then climbed out of his arms. "Teleport back, Conner will be waiting for you."

"Who is that?" Madeline asked as Tommy just shook his head and pressed her teleport button for her.

"You okay?" Tommy asked as Kim nodded her head yes and he gave her a hug. "Thank god…you scared me Kim,"

"I'm sorry, I didn't think that you'd be that strong our powers are the same," Kim said as they walked down the street of an abandoned town, looking around for clues, but honestly just buying themselves some time.

"Where do you think we are?" Tommy asked as Kim looked around. The place did look eerily familiar, but she couldn't place it at the moment.

"We've been here before, I just don't know exactly where here is," Kim said as Tommy shook his head. "Should we just stay morphed?"

"Yeah…I don't trust this place enough to power down. It'll be dumb to get ourselves captured and then be the only ones that can get ourselves out," Tommy said with a laugh as Kim nodded. "Let's get out of here, I don't like the feeling of this place.

"Me too," Kim said as they teleported away and Halindon stepped out from behind a building. These rangers had destroyed his force field and were walking around as if nothing had happened. How the hell had that happened and more importantly where had they come from?

* * *

"I can't believe you're doing this…" Special Agent Flowers said as Andros looked over at him.

"Do you want us to bring Tommy back?" Andros asked as Special Agent Flowers looked over at him and shook his head no. "Then you can shut the hell up and let us finish."

"Bring in the agents," Special Agent Flowers said as his assistant nodded.

"You are taking this too far," Fred said standing up and Special Agent Flowers looked over at him. "We all owe them and all you wish to do is reveal them to the masses. What do you think they'll do? Put them in jail? They're more likely to make them into even bigger heroes. Let them go back to normal."

"I don't choose it, someone higher does," Special Agent Flowers said as Andros and the others looked over at him.

"Bring him in," Andros said as Special Agent Flowers shook his head no. "You're not the son of a bitch that wants us, so bring in the one that does."

"He is currently in Washington and we cannot bring him in. He has meetings that are far more important than this one," Special Agent Flowers said as Andros and Jason both stood.

"Well we refuse to talk and I'm sure that Tommy will do the same, you just didn't screw up and say it in front of him," Jason said as Special Agent Flowers let out a sigh.

"I'll have him here by two o'clock. Go take lunch until then," Special Agent Flowers said as they looked at each other and then walked out. This was going to be an interesting conversation.


	25. The Head Honcho

"We haven't been dealing with the head honcho the entire time?" Tommy asked as Kim threw a pillow at him and it hit him in the back of the head. She did not even want to hear him, she just wanted him to sit and be nice. "What?"

"Shut the door, Tommy!" Kim yelled as he stepped out into the hall and Jason just shook his head as he laughed. Tommy was definitely having a very rough week and he could not blame him for wanting to return to California as soon as humanly possible.

"She really that sick?" Jason asked as Tommy nodded his head yes. She was miserable right now and the fact that she had not been able to get more than twenty minutes of sleep without interruption was about to drive her crazy. "You can't get away?"

"O, I can, I think that I'll even get her down there with us, because I know her wrath will be worse than mine," Tommy said as Jason just stared at him. To be one that was for peace, Tommy seemed to be looking forward to the conflict that was certainly heading their way.

"You sure that you're okay?" Jason asked as Tommy nodded his head yes. "Tommy if this doesn't go right…"

"We all have to choose a time to make a stand…now is my time to do that…I can't keep putting her through this. Enough is enough, Jase. If you don't want to support me, that's fine, but I have to do this for my family, they don't deserve to keep having to go through this," Tommy said as Jason smiled. They had all seen it coming, but Jason had hoped that Tommy would hold it back for a little while longer.

"Okay bro," Jason said as Tommy nodded. "I'll let you get Kim."

"Thanks," Tommy said as he turned back around and went back inside. Jason had no wishes to help him with this problem. Kim was going to be hell to deal with in the next few minutes.

"Can you come down there? We've got the real head honcho coming in," Tommy said as Kim rolled out of bed and crawled over to her bag. There were some things that she could even manage to do, considering what this man had put her through, she thought that she should at least see him. If he was the asshole that she thought he was, then he was definitely going to get her two cents worth, if not more. She was in no mood to bull shit around the facts anymore. It was time that they said what had to be said and either took them in or let them go. Those were the only options that were left now.

"His ass will be mine," Kim said, pulling out various shirts and pants, looking for the most comfortable, but least ugly clothes that she had packed away. "Tommy, can you go buy a can of sprite?"

"Yeah, I can Kim," Tommy said as she crawled to the bathroom and slammed the door shut. He could not help but silently laugh, not because of the condition that she was in, but about the hell she was about to release.

* * *

"They insisted I come?" Colonel Barber questioned as he walked into the building with Special Agent Flowers. He had been telephoned a little over three hours ago that he was going to be placed on a private jet to New York, in order to meet with the Power Rangers. He had never thought that it would come down to this, but now that it had, he had to play hard ball with these people and just hope for the best.

"Yes, they insisted that you come and I know that there is a chance that you will be talking to Tommy," Special Agent Flowers said as Colonel Barber looked over at him. He knew that this agent was scared to death of the man, but he did not fear him. That was what 20 years in the army did to someone. Tommy Oliver would be just like the next man to him and he expected for Special Agent Flowers to feel the same way after seeing his work.

"Tommy is just another problem to deal with. He will be gone and locked away soon enough," Colonel Barber said as Special Agent Flowers just shook his head.

"Sir with all due respect they have done nothing wrong," Special Agent Flowers said as Colonel Barber looked over at him. "And you're just pissing them off by having them here."

"That's my job," Colonel Barber said as they walked into the room and he froze. The amount of rangers standing in front of him shocked him and the other thing was the sight of a man in black, holding a toddler and the utterly pissed woman standing in front of him. He had a feeling that they were the leaders of the veteran rangers and he could understand why. They looked more battle tested than anyone else here and they also looked more than ready to hand him the hardest opposition that he had ever seen.

"Colonel, these are your rangers," Special Agent Flowers said as he managed a nod and as the military came to attention upon hearing his rank.

"At fucking ease," Kim said as Tommy stared down at her with wide eyes and the Colonel stared at her as well. He had slightly underestimated exactly how mad that she was at this moment. "Your ass is mine."

"Kim…" Tommy warned as she nodded in acknowledgement, while never taking her eyes off the Colonel.

"Ma'am I by no means…" Colonel Barber began as Kim rolled her morpher around in her hands, he could not help but stop as he saw a few sparks fly. This little woman meant business and everyone in the room knew that.

"You by no means what? Go on, say it…you have the balls to screw around with the rangers…don't get scared of a little morpher…" Kim said as she glowed an eerie shade of pink and Tommy handed Chris off to Trini.

"Calm down," Tommy soothed as she swatted his hands away.

"You have no idea what you've done to us…I have barely been able to see my husband, he was born almost three months early and you think that this shit is appropriate? How many times has the weight of the world been on your shoulders and you had absolutely no one to turn to? Tell me Mr. 'I am in charge of the Power Rangers', tell me about one damn time you have felt that!" Kim yelled as Colonel Barber took one step towards her.

"How dare you tell a United States Army Colonel that he does not know what this is like?" Colonel Barber said as Kim just shook her head.

"What the hell do you know about us? What the hell do you know about watching your wife lose a child and then almost lose a second one all because you were a ranger? What the hell do you know about that?" Tommy asked as the Colonel looked at him.

"I know that you are a danger to society. Ever since you came into existence this earth has had more problems than it can rightfully handle, you are the problem here not me," Colonel Barber declared as Tommy looked back at the others and the newbies left. They knew that all hell was about to break loose and it would be best if they didn't witness it. That was the moment that Tommy let go of Kim and she slapped Colonel Barber. She would have done much more, but it was all that she had the energy for at the moment. "You have just…"

"Finish it, I dare you," Tommy said as the Colonel stared at him. He, for the first time, realized what Special Agent Flowers meant. This man put the fear of god into people and now he felt it as well.

"Oliver," Colonel Barber began as Tommy stared him down, he was not afraid of any sort of punishment. There were things that were much worse than that. "You'll go in her place?"

"Yeah, after I'm done explaining that she has been sick with morning sickness for the last few weeks or so and it just so happens we didn't know she was pregnant until we got here. So, you're dealing with someone who is on their last few nerves anyway, go ahead and take me away and see what you'll get out of them now," Tommy said with a smirk as Colonel Barber shook his head no. He saw that he was faced with a group much stronger than him.

"What information have they given up?" Colonel Barber asked as Special Agent Flowers looked over at Fred and he just smiled.

"Sir, they've only done what they were trained to do and that is protect us from all the creatures that the military cannot contend with," Fred said as Colonel Barber sat down.

"Will you finish your story?" Colonel Barber asked as Tommy nodded his head yes and then Kim carefully sat down.

"You gonna make it?" Tommy asked as Kim barely nodded her head yes. As long as she didn't have to tell the story, she would be just fine here. "Tell Madeline they can come back in."

"Let's start," Fred said as they all nodded in agreement.

* * *

"Two new rangers, how can you do that? How did they come into existence?" Halindon ranted as Brigom just shrugged his shoulders. He was not getting involved in this is he could help it.

"What are we going to do?" Brigom asked as Halindon let out a sigh.

"It is time to attack, we have no choice," Halindon said and Brigom shook his head.

"I think that's what they want," Brigom said as Halindon nodded.

"What if there's more? We're just going to have to risk it now," Halindon said as Brigom nodded.

"How the hell did you manage that?" Billy asked as Kim and Tommy pulled off their helmets.

"Andros, TJ, why don't you explain," Kim said with a smile as they looked over at her, she had just thrown them to the wolves.

"This was supposed to be impossible," Billy said as Andros looked over at TJ and he just shook his head. He could not see why they were all scared of just telling Billy the truth. "It is foolish to even attempt it."

"With inexperienced ranger it is extremely dangerous, but with an experienced ranger, it is safe. We know our power limits and how much our bodies can take," TJ said as Billy just stared at him.

"I never thought about that…I had always banked on inexperience, not us…well, at least you had the guts to try," Billy said as Andros and TJ just shook their heads.

"No, that was Ms. Kimmie over there. She had a little sit down with us a couple of weeks back and told us that under no uncertain terms, we were to figure out a way that we could get rid of Halindon and everything that might come after him," Andros said as Kim looked away from Billy and he couldn't help but laugh. Leave it to her to get people motivated enough to actually attempt the impossible.

"How much experience do you have between the eight of you?" Billy asked, as he did not want to try to complicate things by trying to count it out on his own.

"One for me," Trini said.

"Me too," Aisha said.

"Two, I think," Kim said as Tommy nodded. Dino Thunder had definitely counted for something.

"Two," Jason said with a smile.

"Two," T.J. said.

"Two," Rocky said.

"Two," Andros said as they all looked at Tommy.

"Four," Tommy said as he looked down at the floor.

"So, that's sixteen teams," Billy said as they all nodded.

"But that doesn't count all the one time 'put back on the uniform for a day' then retire it again," Tommy said as Billy groaned. He did not even wish to attempt that one, as it would be far too complicated to calculate.

"Well, now that you have the powers, you don't have to worry about that happening anymore," Billy said as Kim nodded. They had all known that was coming after everything that they had said.

"Halindon won't be able to ignore that little show of power, actually I don't think anyone will be able to," Conner said as Kim and Tommy both nodded their heads. Sadly enough that was what they had intended to happen when they got these powers.

"No one will be able to…" Madeline muttered as Kim and Tommy just shook their heads.

"We've got to try to keep it secret as long as we can," Kim said as the younger rangers looked at her. "We weren't supposed to get powers, we were supposed to let you take care of it all."

"So why did you get them?" Sam asked as Kim looked up at him.

"What other choice did we have? If we didn't get the powers, you'd still be stuck and not only that, but we want to have a real life again. We've been rangers or involved with rangers for close to fifteen years, it's time we go back to being normal people," Kim said as they stared at her.

"And with powers you'll be normal people?" Sam asked as Kim and Tommy exchanged a glance.

"We won't be messed with anymore, we're too powerful," Tommy said as they all stared at him. They had a very hard time believing that was true, but somehow it was.

"Obviously he must believe that too," Kira said as she nodded towards the screen where Halindon and his minions were attacking.

"We need you guys to go in first," Tommy said looking over at Madeline and she just shook her head.

"Okay, Tommy, but I don't think that this is going to go as good as you think," Madeline said as they morphed and then teleported in.

"Why are you sending them in?" Conner asked as they let out a collective sigh.

"Because they may be able to handle him today, right now we need to be careful," Tommy said as Kim smiled. Being careful was something that should be gone out of the window, but if they were caught with their hands in the cookie jar, everything could go to hell very quickly.

"But you'll have to eventually bring him down?" Kira asked as Tommy nodded his head yes. "So why wait?"

"Because if they look like they can handle it, then we don't need to jump in," Tommy said as Kira just shook her head and then they turned to the screens to watch the action.

"Halindon is handing them their asses," Billy said as Tommy nodded and then looked over at Kim.

"Go, if you must," Kim said as Tommy smiled down at her and then placed his helmet back on. "I'm going to be put through hell."

"Yeah, but that's just part of being married to one of the legends of the Power Rangers," Conner said as Kim looked over at him. She did not need that to be brought up right now.

"Yeah and Mr. Legend still has to come home and sleep next to me every night," Kim said as all the males just stared at her. They certainly did not want for Tommy to catch hell just for going out there to help their rangers.

* * *

"Hold on, you all knew it was against the contract that you signed to get your own powers," Colonel Barber said as they all nodded. "Yet you still took them?"

"What other choice did we have? If we didn't take the powers, we couldn't guarantee that the earth would be safe and then we'd wind up in the same hell that we were in, in about five years or so," Kim said as Colonel Barber barely nodded his head as Kim just looked over at him. "Something else stupid you want to say?"  
"Yes, this may be rhetorical, but all of you still maintain these powers?" Colonel Barber asked as they nodded their heads yes. "And you can guarantee that the earth will not be attacked."

"You haven't heard what we did to him yet," Tommy said as Colonel Barber could only stare. What had they possibly done that had been so outstanding that no one was going to mess with the rangers again until these rangers died?


	26. Hell Hath No Fury

"What do you think that they did?" Colonel Barber asked as Fred looked over at him.

"I don't think you really wish to know the answer to that," Fred said as Colonel Barber looked over at him with a look that clearly said he must explain. He knew much more about them than he did and he needed answers now. He needed to know how to deal with them, because his approach was not working all too well. He usually could count on some sort of fear, but these people did not fear him. They had seen far worse in their lifetimes than him and he was not sure that he even wanted to continue dealing with them at all. "Halindon had almost killed Tommy's wife and their child, Kimberly was pissed for the same reason. The others were just along for the ride and they are no cupcakes either from what I've seen. You're dealing with a group of honed fighters unlike any others that I have ever seen before. You tell me what you think they would do sir."

"So they kicked his ass?" Colonel Barber asked as Fred nodded his head yes. From what he knew, that was the safest thing to assume. "You know, they haven't changed my mind."

"But they have changed mine," Fred said as Colonel Barber and Special Agent Flowers looked over at him. "You'd have to hear it all, but I'll let you know that if you reveal them, they'll all disappear with just the click of a button. They've been prepared for that type of situation for years."

"Can we finish this up?" Tommy asked peeking back in and Special Agent Flowers nodded his head yes. They all knew that they at least deserved some time at home with their families if things didn't go their way.

* * *

"Kim, I could use some help!" Tommy yelled as Kim glared up at the screen and then put back on her helmet. If he was calling for her, then she was going to go in there, even if she didn't really want to. There was just something about him needing help that made her worry; it had always been like that. Tommy was fine to admit that he needed back up, but when he called out for it…that was another story.

"Good luck," Conner said with a wide smile as Kim glared at him before teleporting out.

"She's gonna kill you when she gets back," Kira said as Conner smiled. He had always enjoyed picking on Kimberly, along with everyone else there; he just knew how to get under her skin better than the others.

"Ow," Madeline muttered as Halindon threw her into a tree and Kim scrambled over to her defense. They were far outnumbered and they still hadn't quite gotten the hang of the team thing, not that she really blamed them. They had not had to fight nearly as much as Kim and Tommy had when they were on their first team. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving your ass, go…" Kim said turning to Halindon just in time to block his next shot towards her head. "I'm not like them, you can't push me around."

"Who are you?" Halindon asked as Kim smiled, how much he'd like to know that, but if she had it her way, he would only know in his last moments who she was.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Kim said with a smile as she tossed him away. Even Tommy couldn't help but smile, Halindon now had a second match in his wife and he could focus on the other mess for a little while. He had never loved fighting the main villain and although he knew Kim didn't like it either, it was a release for her. She needed to get some of this out on Halindon before it ate her up inside.

"You can't be human," Halindon muttered as Kim laughed.

"I'm definitely human, I'm just a little bit more experienced than all of them," Kim said nodding back as Halindon stood up from the strike that she had dealt. "It's time you make a stand because without it, you're gonna be gone before anyone really fears you."

"I'm their worst nightmare," Halindon said as Kim looked over at him.

"Those rangers have never seen worse, I have," Kim said as she pulled out a blaster and blasted him. She had been waiting for this day for so long and now she had it. It was her chance to make him pay for everything that he had done to her and she was going to do as much as she could to make that happen. "You now have to deal with me."

"What I wouldn't do to see Tommy right now," Halindon said as Kim smiled.

"Who's Tommy?" Kim asked as Halindon looked over at her. She must not be from earth; every ranger here knew of Tommy. Hell, he was fairly certain that most rangers from other worlds knew of who Tommy was. He seemed to be some sort of legend among the rangers, although he was not sure why that was the case. "Sounds like someone I need to meet, if you're so scared of him."

"You're lucky, he's already here," Tommy said walking up behind her and she turned around to face him.

"Then I'll let you take care of this," Kim said with a smile and then back-handspringed away to face the lovely minions. The fact that she had her full range of motion back was a blessing. If they had had to do this a few months ago, she would not have been able to cope. Her body would not have been able to take all of that at once.

"Oliver," Halindon muttered as the white ranger stalked towards him.

"You never thought I'd finally have powers again, you were wrong," Tommy said as Halindon backed himself into a tree. He honestly didn't know where to turn, as he knew that there was a blow that was surely headed his way. "Do you want this to be quick or do you want me to enjoy it?"

"You'll never destroy me, you're not strong enough," Halindon said as Tommy rubbed his hands together and sparks began to fly as his strength started to gather together. Halindon could see that he had only one choice, attack the pink ranger and hope that Tommy cared about her. As his fire hit her Tommy exploded and Halindon went flying over the tree as Kim looked at him. She had known that Tommy would not be able to hold back if Halindon stepped over that line willingly.

"Strength is something figurative," Tommy said looking back at Kim as she pushed herself up. The blast had affected her some, but she was still conscious this time. She could almost feel Tommy's relief that she was all right, that was his main concern at the moment.

"You okay?" Sam asked as Kim nodded her head yes and then began fighting with them.

"We have to hold out long enough to see what Tommy can do, after that we'll take over. Halindon is going to be brought down," Kim said as they looked over at her. They suddenly felt like they were going to be the shortest ever serving ranger in the history of rangers, but that was all right. They had done their jobs.

"Today?" Maddox asked as Kim barely nodded before Tommy was sent flying towards her. He had taken his mind off Halindon for a moment and now he was paying for it.

"Not yet," Tommy muttered as Kim barely nodded and then went back to work. She knew that Tommy had to do as much as he could, as this was more than a normal battle, it was a personal battle as well. Halindon had been his problem first and he felt it was his responsibility to do this if he could manage it.

"You heard him, keep fighting," Kim said as they barely nodded. They felt something happening, but didn't know what it was. They had never experienced their powers failing before and now it was happening to them.

"Kim, they are reaching their power limit, we need to get them out of there now," Billy said as Kim looked over at them and saw their protective gear flashing in and out. She knew that if Halindon figured it out he would take advantage of it and attempt to hit them during one of the flashes. She was sure that would have near fatal consequences for them and she did not want to see that happen.

"Get 'em out of here, just make sure the others are on their way when you do it," Kim said as the flashes began and Tommy looked around. "They had to go."

"Alright," Tommy said taking his focus back to Halindon, who was still watching the flashes of light as the rangers went in and out of the scene. "Now you get to meet my friends."

"Your friends don't scare me," Halindon said as the pink ranger walked over and Halindon only stared. He was suddenly seeing a connection that he wished did not exist.

"You thought I didn't know Tommy," Kim began as Halindon's eyes widened. "I know him better than anyone else here. Wouldn't you like to know that your wife was on your side?"

"Shit…" Halindon said as the both of them smiled. To have the wrath of the both of them was something that he did not want to feel. He had done too much to them to be able to just get off.

"You should have been nicer to me, maybe you would make it out alive if you had," Kim said as Halindon shook in fear. To know that Kim and Tommy were here and the rangers behind them were probably other veterans, he was no longer dealing with newbies, he was dealing with the rangers that had surpassed all expectations.

"A deal, maybe?" Halindon asked as Kim and Tommy looked at each other, they were in no mood for deals.

"Can you give me my child back?" Tommy asked as Halindon laughed and Tommy's eyes narrowed. "Then I guess we have no deal."

"Well then I'll take her," Halindon said blasting Kim away with his full force, which caused her to demorph.

"Like hell you will," Tommy said as one blast threw Halindon into the nearest building, sending him through the wall. "Haven't you figured out that I'll protect her with my life?"

"Of course, that's why I hurt her, to get to you," Halindon said as he started to send a pulse at Tommy, but never managed it as Kim sent out a force field which caused Halindon to disintegrate. The other rangers stopped dead in their tracks as they stared at Kim, who was still glowing pink. They had never seen that sort of display of power before, of course, no one had really threatened Tommy's life like that before either and that seemed to have more to do with it than anything else.

"Anyone else want to fuck with us?" Kim yelled to the sky and the question seemed to echo throughout the universe. The evils of the present had been watching this as they had detected a drop in Earth's powers. That challenge would go unfulfilled, the rangers had now finished their jobs. The earth was safe.

* * *

"Holy crap," Conner muttered as the veterans landed in the Command Center, a little worse for wear, but it was nothing that a good night's sleep wouldn't cure.

"Since you said that we've got somewhere around twenty messages saying that they have quit all aims for the conquering of the earth," Billy said as Kim looked over at him. She had never thought that would be the affect of what she had done, but obviously more people had been paying attention than she thought. "I think that you finally got the point across."

"It's about time," Jason said as they all nodded. "All it takes is one pissed off woman."

"Kim, you should have done that earlier," Rocky said with a laugh as Kim just powered down and went to sit down on the couch. Although everyone else was ecstatic that Halindon was gone, Kim did not seem able to muster any excitement at the moment. She seemed to be in a place that no one really wished to go to and they could not help but wonder why.

"You okay?" Tommy asked as Kim just placed her head in her hands and he put his arms around her.

"I can't lose you, Tommy," Kim whispered as he looked around at the others and many of them turned to leave.

"Now you won't have to worry about that anymore," Tommy said as she looked up at him. "They're going to leave us alone, we did what we must; it's all over now."

* * *

"That's it?" Colonel Barber asked as the rangers nodded their heads yes. "Maybe we should let you take care of things in Iraq."

"No, that's your job, we've never claimed to be the military and we never will. It's not our job," Tommy said as Colonel Barber nodded. He now understood more about them, although he had only heard about an hour of testimony.

"Well, this concludes the interview of the power rangers," Fred said as he switched off his recording device and the rangers looked at each other, wondering if they could leave. "We have flights scheduled for all of you tomorrow morning. It's going to be about two months before we can make heads of tales of any of this, but you'll be the first to know whether or not you need to pack up and go."

"Thanks," Tommy said as he picked Chris up and Kim leaned against him. They certainly had had it rough, but it was over. They were either going to be hung out to dry or left alone, they just hoped that whoever reviewed this would see reason. The rangers had done so much for them, now it was time to pay them back and allow them to have their privacy intact.


	27. Investigative Findings

MEMORANDUM: INVESTIGATIVE FINDINGS

TO: POWER RANGERS AGAINST NEW EVIL LEGIONS

FROM: FEDERAL BUREA OF INVESTIGATION

I, Colonel Richard Lee Barber, dismiss all charges brought against the Power rangers Against New Evil Legions by the United States government. It is with the utmost gratitude that we now release you from all responsibilities that you have been liable for, for the past three years. This is to be taken as our sincerest apology for all inconveniences that we have caused in the process of our investigation. It is time that you go back to your lives, the ones that you wish to live. We will no longer interfere. Thank you for your dedication and your sacrifices.

Colonel Richard Lee Barber, United States Army

"I don't know if I believe this," Kim said as she re-read the memorandum that had arrived at the dojo a couple of hours ago. Tommy had called all of them when he received it and they had all gotten there as quickly as they could.

"I know what you mean," Jason said as they all looked around at each other. They honestly could not believe that they finally had the conclusive findings of the investigation in their hands. No it did not say the exact charges that had been brought against them, but it said that they were free and that was what they were glad about.

"Well, if you ask me, it's just in time," Tommy said as Kim looked up at him and smiled. Their baby was due in two months and it was such a relief that they were not going to have to pick up and move to Aquitar right now. They had all decided that would be the only way to get away from it all if it came down to it, but they hoped it wouldn't and it hadn't.

"Mama!" Chris yelled as he toddled up to her and reached up for her. Tommy then picked him up and handed him over to Kim.

"What do you want?" Kim asked playfully as he just smiled and rested his head on her shoulder.

"I think he knows that he won't be an only child for much longer and he wants all the attention that he can get," Trini said as Kim just shook her head and smiled.

"Since we're talking about it, when are the two of you going to have another kid?" Rocky asked as Trini and Jason looked at each other and then looked away.

"When the two of you decide that you'll finally have one," Jason said as Rocky smiled a sly smile and they all stared at him with wide eyes. "Crap."

"I'm about two months pregnant," Aisha said as they all started their congratulations and Jason just shook his head.

"Well, I think that I am going to go home to Cassie, if you don't mind," Andros said as they all nodded. "She's going wanna hear about this."

"Well, we'll see you around," Kim said as Chris waved good-bye and Andros waved back as he left the dojo. "It's about time we head home too, he needs to get to sleep pretty soon."

"It's over, it's finally over," Jason muttered to Tommy as he nodded his head in agreement. He had never thought that this day would come, when he would be able to say that he was done with the ranger world. It was a world that he had been a part of for so many years and a world that he was sure he would miss in some ways. He, however, knew that it was time to move on and unless this world came looking for him once more, then he was done. He was nothing more than a legend in a world that thought they were a myth.


End file.
